Local oil dealers say fear about a war with Iraq may drive oil prices up a bit in the short term, but there is plenty of oil to go around and prices will stabilize.

Jeff Quirk of Quirk Oil Company in Scarborough said prices may be going up slightly right n o w, but are generally stable.

Last year, people thought oil prices would climb after Sept. 11, but they did not. Quirk expects similar psychological factors this year to contribute to oil price uncertainty.

Kevin Frederick of Frederick Brothers Oil in Scarborough said, “nobody knows for certain what it ’s going to do.”

Walking into Lester Hashey’s home, it’s clear he is a veteran proud of his service. The former paratrooper has a small parachuting figure hanging high in a living room window.

A poster with the names of the 51 men of his outfit who were killed in action hangs in the corner, a litany of small-print names impossible to ignore.

And upstairs, his beloved pool table is covered in piles of photos from the war and unit reunions since. On the walls are mementos, including his Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, unit patches and his paratrooper’s wings.

But not until the time comes to leave the Scarborough home of this energetic 77-year-old does his role in history become clear. To the right of the front door hangs a 16-by-20-inch print of a drawing of a church in the Dutch town of Eindhoven, a town liberated by Hashey and his fellow soldiers in 1944.

Though the church was destroyed, a modern Dutch artist drew it in honor of the liberation. Printed at the bottom of the display are five simple words: “Thank you for our freedom.”

After eight years and 13 members of the Planning Board having come and gone, developer Joe Frustaci’s controversial Blueberry Ridge subdivision in Cape Elizabeth was approved by a unanimous vote Tuesday.

In 1994 Frustaci came forward with a plan to develop about 11 acres between Mitchell Road in Cape Elizabeth and the Dana Park neighborhood in abutting South Portland. At that time, he had plans to access the subdivision through South Portland.

Since then the project has gone through four planning stages, including the city of South Portland discontinuing the roads Frustaci had hoped to use. In July of last year, Frustaci was able to purchase property on Mitchell Road that gave him access to the parcel from the Cape Elizabeth side.

Ten sixth-grade girls from Cape Elizabeth, members of Girl Scout Troop 1402, have brought a Kenyan girl to Portland, from Oct. 14 through N o v. 2, to receive treatment for an eye disease that may leave her blind if left untreated.

Last week the Cape Elizabeth Town Council got its first look at phase one of a multi-phase master plan for the town-owned Gull Crest property off Spurwink Avenue. This first phase calls for the construction of several boardwalks and two pedestrian bridges for an estimated cost of $107,180.

Since mid-June, a new granite and brick sign has graced the front entrance to the Scarborough Middle School. The sign was a gift from the middle school student council, which raised money for two years to pay for it. Middle school teacher, Sylvia Tapley, guided the student council through the process of choosing the sign design and getting it constructed.

Avoiding a fray over a hot-button issue statewide, Scarborough opted not to further restrict the use of political signs in town earlier this month when the Ordinance Committee refused to forward a proposal that would have limited their placement along the marsh.

In July, Town Clerk Yolande Justice asked the Ordinance Committee to prevent the posting of political signs along any road within the state estuary of the saltwater marsh. This would have included banning election signs along portions of Route 1, Pine Point Road and Black Point Road. Justice said these areas are listed in the town’s Open Space Study as scenic views and therefore political signs, which could spoil the view, should not be allowed.

“This lake is extraordinary.” That’s the description of Sebago Lake given by Chad Thompson, a Portland Water District environmental scientist, following a day of taking lake water samples last week.

Thompson is one of three scientists who perform water quality work on the lake that provides drinking water for about 190,000 customers in 11 communities and five Casco Bay Islands. Three other Water District scientists analyze water samples in a laboratory. Before the lake water gets to customers’ homes, it goes to a treatment plant in Standish to assure purity.