As Cape Elizabeth residents sifted through old pots and pans, books and children’s toys last Thursday afternoon, Phineas Sprague fingered the stack of business cards in his pocket and looked for someone to approach.

“Can I give you my business card?” Sprague asked of a woman as she unloaded a stack of books onto a table. Following a New England tradition, Sprague was campaigning for the Maine House of Representatives by meeting voters at “the dump.”

Sprague will replace John McGinty, the Republican who appeared on the June primary ballot for District 25. Jane Amero, another prominent local Republican, said McGinty decided he wasn’t going to have enough time to campaign and serve in Augusta.

A blue jay found dead Aug. 14 in a yard on Sawyer Road has tested positive for West Nile virus, according to police and the state environmental laboratory.

It is the first such report in town this year, though two dead crows were found July 6 on Shore Road near Cragmoor. Animal Control Officer Bob Leeman said he had not heard back on those animals, and the state lab has not reported them as positive for West Nile virus.

The first bird in the state to test positive for West Nile virus this year was a blue jay in Orono July 23. A crow from South Portland tested positive Aug. 15, according to the web site of the state Bureau of Health. In 2001, seven birds were found with the virus in Maine, although no humans were affected.

As expected, the Scarborough Town Council Wednesday night agreed to place a $26.8 million referendum question on the November ballot for an expansion of the high school.

This past winter the Board of Education made the high school project its top priority and received substantial support from town councilors, including Council Chairman Jeff Messer and Councilor Mark Maroon.

Both Maroon and Messer were members of the high school facilities committee, which has worked with Harriman Associates, the project architects, since February to design a concept plan for the high school that would meet the needs of an ever-expanding student population.

When classes started this year, schools in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough were short on substitute teachers because of a law that went into effect July 1 requiring background checks and fingerprints for all of them.

Despite the fact that both school districts notified substitutes of the requirement last spring, many have ignored it, making them ineligible to teach. Others feel the background checks and fingerprints are an invasion of privacy.

In Cape Elizabeth, only 15 of the 40 to 50 substitutes that work in the district have met the requirement. In Scarborough, only 73 of the 132 substitutes have gone through the process.

The Maine Department of Transportation appears to be making good on its promise to address traffic woes in Dunstan with a public meeting scheduled for Sept. 10 to find out what people want done.

High on the list of reasons town officials are interested in promoting a proposed Great American Neighborhood project in Dunstan is that MDOThas agreed to design, build, and seek substantial funding for intersection improvements along Route 1 in that area if the project is built.

The state’s planning office supports the Great American Neighborhood, which would be densely settled with 441 housing units, as a model for anti-sprawl developments.

With a $240 million state budget deficit and a special session hanging over their heads, local legislators were asked to tell the Current what they would do if they were in charge.

Gov. Angus King proposed a package of solutions to legislative leaders last week.

While many have called his proposals gimmicks, some local Democrats said they’re not ready to talk about alternative proposals yet – feeding speculation more taxes could be in the works . Other Democrats said they didn’t have the answers, and although King’s proposals seem bad, they might be the only short-term option.

Local Republicans were upset at the idea of using a “gimmick” to plug the hole in the budget. They outlined cuts they would make if they could get other legislators to back their plans.

For Scarborough’s Drew Dumas, a 17-year-old junior at Carrabassett Valley Academy near Sugarloaf, the first month of school will include a trip down under to New Zealand to back country, and hut to hut skiing on the Fox Glacier.

This will be just one of the many adventures Dumas will experience as a CVA student in the new Alpine Leadership Pursuits for Skiers and Snowboarders or ALPS program.

The Maine State Board of Education and the Maine Department of Education have announced that Kelly Hasson, a first-grade teacher at Pond Cove School in Cape Elizabeth, is a state finalist for the 2003 Maine Teacher of the Year.

Hasson will compete with Walter Hayes, a math teacher at Westbrook High School; Donna Morton, fourth grade, Manchester School, Windham; Randal McCormick, Technology Education, Calais High School; and Betsy Wandishin, fifth grade, Crooked River Elementary School, Casco.

Editor’s note: Looking Back is a weekly column including news items reported 10 years ago in The Current, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in September 2011.

From the left, Anna Goldstein, Emma Dvorozniak and Tess Goldstein show off the new faces they found at the Cape Elizabeth art show at Fort Williams in this photo from Sept. 5, 2002.