May 9, 1984

The Planning Board sought to block them, but the Zoning Appeals

Board voted 5-0 to permit two replacement signs for Ernie’s Cycle

Shop, 105 Conant St., Westbrook. ZAB acted just in time. The state is ready to cut down two signs that have served the bicycle business since 1973. They are homemade, and the state no longer permits homemade signs on state highway land.

Dr. James Calderbank said an emergency bypass operation saved the Rev. Harold Shepard’s life April 30 in the Maine Medical Center. Rev. Shepard, the minister of the Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church, remained under a close watch in the medical center this week. Rev. Shepard was taken to the hospital by his wife, Lois, soon after midnight Sunday, April 29. Dr. Calderbank, his personal physician, said his condition was unstable on Sunday – sometimes better, sometimes worse. On Monday morning, however a full-scale heart attack developed and immediate surgery was necessary to restore circulation that had been interrupted in part of the heart.

The Gorham Town Council put it up to the voters to decide in a

referendum vote June 12 whether to issue up to $365,000 in bonds for school roof repairs. The vote came after about an hour’s discussion May 1 on a plan to patch the roofs and fix them year by year.

The Gorham Town Council referred the question of whether to help fund a water main for Brackett Road to its Capital Improvements Committee and Town Attorney Kenneth Cole III, Town Planner Mark Eherman and Town Manager Donald Gerrish, on May 1.

Gorham police notes: Police helped a woman put her clothesline

back up after vandals tore it down. Cathy Wilson said her neighbor’s beagle was in her trash again. She was told to record the dates and times the dog does it. A Brackett Road man reported two suspicious men, one carrying a white plastic trash bag. A Portland man hit a deer with his car on the New Portland Road with no damage to the vehicle.

The Westbrook Women’s Republican Club will have a chicken cordon bleu luncheon at the Westbrook High School Family Living Center, 125 Stroudwater St., Westbrook, at noon May 16. The speaker will be Richard Hews, county commissioner. Candidates invited to attend and speak are Bernard Rines, Gorham, candidate for the party’s nomination for a seat in the Maine Senate in the new District 28; Jerry Hillock, Gorham, running for the party’s nomination for state representative from the new District 35.

May 11, 1994

Two men, each with a powerful .357 revolver in hand, wearing

plastic Halloween masks, walked in on customers and store personnel of Day’s Jewelry store in downtown Westbrook at 10:29 a.m. Thursday. They walked out minutes later with jewelry worth “in the tens of thousands.” They made a clean getaway. The men told everyone to lie on the floor, then smashed open the two glass cases that contained the store’s most valuable diamonds and other jewelry. The car that brought them was driven by a third man, also wearing a Halloween mask. He waited in it at the store’s back door while the gunmen did their job. Then they sped off, making a right turn onto

Bridge Street. Police Chief Ronald Allanach said police have no clear suspects.

Supt. Edward Connolly is giving back his 5 percent raise for

1994-95, he revealed at a meeting of the Westbrook School Committee. He listed the amount as $3,700. “He turned back his raise in view of the economic times,” said Frank Amoroso, administrative assistant to Connolly.

Westbrook police notes: A man and woman were ordered to court

for assault after they got to fighting in the police station parking

lot at 2 a.m. A boy vandalized her car and was threatening to beat up her son, a King Street woman said. “Sammy,” a 9-year-old Labrador-golden retriever mix, jumped from

a car at a high school at noon and disappeared. Police went to help a woman with cut wrists. They said it was a suicide attempt. Gorham police chased an all-terrain vehicle into Westbrook, where Westbrook police held it. The charge is illegal attachment of plates.

Ronald Allanach is turning from running a police force at the

city level to giving out help and information at the federal level. He unpins his Westbrook police chief’s badge May 31 and starts work the next morning at 10 Mouton St., Portland, one of the several Maine offices of U.S. Sen. William Cohen.

Sally Kakitis, 46 Rust Road, Gorham, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for House District 23 seat in the state

Legislature.

Gorham police will now be able to charge nonresidents $1 for

finger or palm printing, the Town Council decided at last week’s

meeting. The $1 fee will help defray costs incurred by police for

fingerprinting residents and nonresidents who need prints done for employment or insurance purpose, according to Police Chief Edward Tolan.