From The Aegis Dec. 25, 1986:
A county judge denied an injunction request 25 years ago by Harford County government to stop the merger of Harford Memorial and Fallston General hospitals, paving the way for the merger to be completed as early as this week.
The county had filed suit claiming that Harford Memorial hospital's use of cash reserves to buy Fallston General was a violation of Harford's 1980 lease agreement with the county, as well as an agreement in which the county borrowed $5.3 million on behalf of the hospital so it make improvements to the facility.
During a hearing before Circuit Court Judge Albert P. Close, county government attorneys Max D. Miller and Victor K. Butanis argued the merger should be stopped until the county could determine if Harford Memorial had defaulted on its lease with the county or on the 1980 loan agreement.
In his ruling, Close said, "I would have to say that in balancing it out the court would have to deny the injunction," and that was it.
The hearing was one of Close's last on the bench. He had continued to hear cases even after his retirement a month earlier. Maurice W. Baldwin Jr. was sworn in this week 25 years ago to replace Close. Baldwin gave took the oath of office from Charles G. Hiob III, clerk of the Circuit Court.
More than 40 people were evacuated from a charter bus on I-95 25 years ago this week after a gunman barricaded himself on the bus. The gunman had boarded the bus in Washington and threatened to harm an unidentified passenger, but he never pointed the gun at anyone specifically.
Police later said the gunman appeared "heavily intoxicated." The driver, when learning a passenger had a gun, pulled the bus onto the shoulder of I-95 near the Abingdon Road overpass. The gunman barricaded himself in the bathroom, and the passengers got off the bus.
The state Department of Education's top official 25 years ago said Harford's public schools leader showed an "insensitivity to black citizens" in the county. The state superintendent's comments came after reading quotes by Superintendent A.A. Roberty about the hiring and promotion of blacks working for the Harford school system.
Those statements, if accurate, State Superintendent David W. Hornbeck wrote Roberty, "call into question your leadership on issues of equity."
"At a time when equal opportunity an deserving at-risk students is particularly important, we must be increasingly vigilant, not less so, in assuring exemplary leadership in these matters," Hornbeck wrote.
Roberty countered by saying Harford had made "considerable efforts" to recruit and promote blacks, but he admitted the schools have not been as successful in those efforts as he would have liked.
Ground was broken 25 years ago this week on a $675,000 three-part addition to Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company's main building at the corner of Churchville Road and Hickory Avenue.
Space was being added for training, offices, overnight bunk rooms and storage, and the dining hall and restrooms were being renovated.
Bel Air town commissioners granted a gift to visitors to the town: free parking. The parking meters were covered in plastic bags that read "'MERRY CHRISTMAS' FREE PARKING TWO HOUR LIMIT." The free parking was to last until Dec. 29.
With Christmas all but over, shops and restaurants were getting ready to celebrate New Year's Eve. Partypaper Place in Rock Spring Shopping Center was advertising horns, hats, noisemakers, streamers and all other sorts of celebratory items. The Sheraton in Aberdeen was advertising its New Year's Eve festivities, including an oldies celebration in the ballroom, an open house at Billy's and New Year's Day brunch as well as overnight packages.