March 21, 1984

Janice Peterson doesn’t live the typical American suburban life.

She and her friend Rick Peterson live 60 miles from the nearest

neighbor, on the edge of the tundra in the Brooks Range in Alaska.

They live in a log cabin they built themselves alongside a creek about 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle and about 300 miles north of Fairbanks, where they buy their supplies. They trap for furs and pan for gold for a living. Janice, who is 30, grew up in Gorham and is in the middle of a five-week visit with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Petersen, New Gorham Road. She has been in Alaska nearly five years with one visit back here two years ago. After she left school at University of Southern Maine, she traveled around

the country a bit. While living in Florida decided she wanted to

go to Alaska. She arrived in Anchorage in May of 1979 with $80 in her pocket, after hitchhiking from California.Once there, she went to Cantwell, near Mount McKinley National Park. When she met Rick, about three years ago, they decided to move out into the real wilderness. They made a cabin of spruce logs, chinked with moss and with a roof of logs covered with tarpaper, then sod. They have a chain saw and heat with a wood stove.

The Westbrook School Committee held up action on smoking this

week for a report on an Osteopathic Hospital offer, and for the

results of a field study by Superintendent Edward F. Connolly. The hospital offered to teach all children, Grades 6 through 12

what they are getting into if they smoke. “We need time to explore

this concept,” Connolly reported to the School Committee. Connolly

plans to take four hours of his schedule to give Westbrook High

School students and teachers a chance to tell him what they want for smoking regulations at the high school.

The Gorham Planning Board has recommended to the Appeals Board that Linwood Graffam be allowed to operate a mobile hot dog van on Chandler Johnson’s property, Apple Acres, at Mosher’s Corner. Alton Benson, Allene Bowler and Chairman Stephen Abramson expressed concerns about traffic entering and leaving and about people walking between Beal’s Ice Cream, Apples Acres and Graffam’s unit.Bowler recommended an island or fence in the lot.

March 23, 1994

Aldermen voted Monday to repeal the two-hour parking limit in

downtown Westbrook after a 10-day ticketing blitz by Westbrook police provoked a storm of protests. Tom Pratt, insurance executive, asked whether the tickets were the policemen’s response to a recent order from Acting Mayor Kenneth

Lefebvre restoring a downtown foot patrol. Lefebvre said the foot patrol might have been an influence since it brought patrolmen face to face with cars breaking the two-hour rule. “I’ve lived all my life in this city,” said Pratt. “I can’t believe that the Westbrook Police Department would start ticketing cars without giving the citizens of Westbrook a two-week notice that the rules would now be enforced.” Lefebvre said the tickets could be appealed to the police chief. He said tickets issued on the first day, March 9, clearly should be forgiven. The council asked its Public Safety Committee to review downtown parking rules soon.

Several Gorham business owners spoke against a proposed sign

ordinance at a Planning Board meeting Monday night, prompting the board to postpone any recommendations to the Town Council, until the business community reviews and discusses the issue with Town Planner Jay Grande. The board held a public hearing on the proposals March 7, but nobody came.

Westbrook aldermen talked for an hour and a half Monday about raising fees for burials. The sticking point was whether the city should continue to do the digging in St. Hyacinth Cemetery and allow it a $100 discount. The Rev. Robert G. Lavoie, pastor of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church, said that in fact, the money St. Hyacinth pays represents added income to the city at little extra expense. Aldermen accepted this view as a Committee of the Whole to recommend to the City Council that the present arrangement continue but at a new, higher fee schedule. Weekday burials would go from $250 to $350. Burials on weekends would go from $325 to $450. Grave sites that now sell for $250 to residents would go to $350. For non-residents, the price would go from $300 to $400.

Burial prices are different for children, stillborns, and cremations.

Gorham residents with private water supplies should have their wells tested for arsenic, according to Code Enforcement Officer Mark Mitchell. At least 10 wells in Gorham have showed unsafe levels of arsenic -“a high-enough level to require filtration,” said Mitchell.