20 years ago - William and Kathleen Schrodel agreed Thursday to abandon their attempts to block county condemnation of their farm for use as a landfill, providing that tests by the state Department of the Environment show the 230-acre property is suitable for refuse disposal.

Eastalco Aluminum Co., cited with 32 violations of Maryland environmental law, is negotiating with state officials to remedy excessive water pollution. Each violation represents one day that Eastalco discharged more than the allowable limit of a certain pollutant, explained Michael Sullivan, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

50 years ago - Maria Ann Callas and Mary Ellen Creed, junior-year students at Frederick High School are trying to prove that a goose does not, by instinct, choose a member of its own family. The girls are not interested in goose farming, as one might first suspect, but rather their primary interest in geese stemmed from the need for a project at the coming science fair at Frederick High School.

Two boys were sentenced to four years each in the Reformatory for Males for their part in an armed robbery at a New Market service station.

100 years ago - Hotel Braddock, the popular summer resort on Catoctin Mountain, has been sold by Mrs. Long, widow of the late owner of the hotel, Mr. P. E. Long, to Mr. E. W. Wheeler, of Washington.

A movement is on foot, looking for the erection of a mortuary chapel at Mt. Olivet cemetery. A petition is being circulated, and has been signed by quite a number of the lot holders of the cemetery, which will shortly be presented to the directors of the company, requesting the erection of a chapel.