Jan. 20, 1988

Paul “Bucky” Holloway, 34, plans to buy 10 buildings in the Cumberland Mills triangle of Westbrook and is pulling together help from wherever he can get it to complete the financing for the $950,000 purchase. He feels he also needs $500,000 more to improve the buildings. With support from the city of Westbrook, he is looking to the state and federal government for some financing. Holloway, a building construction contractor, has bought the 21?2 acres and its buildings from Allyn Lord of Scarborough. Lord holds the total mortgage while Holloway works on the financing.

Parishioners at St. Anne’s Church in Gorham are claiming that the last 10 years of nearby development, including construction of the Municipal Center and Narragansett School, have added to severe drainage problems at the southern end of the church parking lot. Now, with a proposal by Custom Built Homes of Maine to build Village Crossing, a 32-unit residential subdivision on land just south of the parking lot, the church is fighting back. In a Dec. 29 letter to Planning Board Chairman Henry Willett, James Volkommer, representing the parish, outlined the drainage problems faced by the parish and requested a comprehensive watershed study before the project is approved.

Shannon Elizabeth Northrop of Westbrook is the winner of the American Journal’s First Baby of 1988 contest. Shannon wins the contest for babies whose parents live in Westbrook, Gorham or Windham. She was born at 7:05 p.m. Jan. 1 to Karen and Steven Northrop, Constitution Drive, Westbrook. She weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and was born at Maine Medical Center. She is their first child. Her father is a manufacturing engineer at Data General. Her mother was formerly employed by Union Mutual.

Construction of the $800,000 addition to Westbrook’s Prides Corner School was halted and school canceled after a power shovel dug up a 3-inch water line last Thursday morning. Foundation construction is just getting under way and the shovel was digging the last few feet of a trench when it hit a water pipe two feet above where it showed on the plan. This not only meant no wash water and no water for toilet flushing, it also meant no fire-protection sprinklers because water was diverted to keep the furnace supplied. The pipe was repaired by 5:30 p.m. that day.

David Bois, a 24-year veteran of the Westbrook school system, will start work Feb. 1 as superintendent of schools in Raymond. Bois is Westbrook’s director of instruction for grades K-8. He makes $40,165 a year, and expects his new job to pay about the same. Westbrook Superintendent Edward Connolly, a longtime co-worker and friend, expects to look both inside and outside the Westbrook schools for Bois’ successor.

A bean super will be held Jan. 23 at the White Rock Community Center in Gorham to aid Vaughan and Donna Higgins, whose White Rock Drive home was seriously damaged by fire the night of Jan. 6. Donna Higgins said this week that the help they have received since the fire has been “unbelievable.” She said, “I had no idea so many people would pitch in and help us.” They have been staying in the Portland home of her husband’s sister and brother-in-law since the fire, which destroyed the second floor of their home. The fire was caused by a piece of plywood that had been placed near the chimney 10 years ago when the house was built. A fire was apparently left in a woodstove in the morning and eventually set the plywood on fire.

Jan. 21, 1998

Two boys horsing around in the locker room accidentally broke a sprinkler pipe last month that ruined the floor of the Westbrook Recreation Department basketball court on Foster Street. Despite immediate efforts to get the flood water off the floor, the board warped beyond repair and the city ordered a whole new floor installed. Ryan Flooring, Brewer, started Jan. 5, and the gym should be open for youth basketball league Saturday.

The Westbrook school system is in dire need of a full-time curriculum coordinator, says Superintendent Robert Hall. At its meeting Jan. 14, the School Committee enthusiastically discussed the option of creating a position devoted solely to designing, maintaining and coordinating classroom curricula for all grades. Traditionally, principals and subject department heads were in charge of curriculum. While curriculum is still one aspect of a principal’s job description, “they have more to do in their daily job, and not enough tine to spend on the nuts and bolts of education,” Hall said.

James Dyer’s Southern Maine Firewood operation has received hundreds of calls for firewood since the recent ice storm, but because the town of Gorham has denied him a permit to split and cut wood, he has not been able to meet customer demand. “We just don’t have enough. We’ll be out of wood in a week,” said Dyer, who has sold wood from his Burnham Road property for 10 years. Dyer is currently selling wood for $105 a cord ($100 for two cords). He said the wood is seasoned but could be drier. “The problem,” he said, “is that we weren’t allowed to produce wood back in September and October because they (the town) wouldn’t give me my permits.” He has since been allowed to operate on a limited basis pending appeals of the denial.

Cynthia Hazelton and the Gorham Recreation Department have settled comfortably into their new 48-by-24-foot building between the high school and Shaw Junior High. Technically, the structure is portable, but “We expect to be here for a while,” said Hazelton with a smile. “We’ve got at $700,000 building here,” which is, she stressed, mostly the result of volunteers. The old recreation office was for 12 years in the junior high school in a room that measured 16 by 15 feet. “It was a janitor’s closet,” said Hazelton.

In a full-page ad, the Westbrook Housing Authority extended “a heartfelt Thank You” for all those who helped with the evacuation of the residents of Larrabee Village during the recent ice storm. Among those acknowledged: Chief Rogers and the Westbrook Fire Department, Chief Roberts and the Westbrook Police Department, Mayor Don Esty, City Administrator Jim Bennett, the Westbrook School Department for shelter space and buses, Joan Harmon and the junior high youth who assisted at the shelter, the kitchen crew and other volunteers at the shelter, the American Red Cross, Springbrook Center, Maine National Guard, L.L. Bean, the citizens of Westbrook “and last, but not at all least, the residents of Larrabee Village and their supportive families and friends and the Larrabee Village Staff Evacuation Team.”

The Agway Farm & Garden Store was located at 33 Central St. for many years. The building had a railroad siding to send and receive merchandise when railroad tracks occupied the present-day William Clarke Drive. Early Tuesday morning, Jan. 22, 1985, a spectacular fire destroyed the store. The site was cleared and remained vacant for a number of years. Anderson-Watkins Insurance Co. purchased the land and constructed a new building and parking lot. The address was changed to 31 Central St. To see more historical photos and artifacts, visit the Westbrook Historical Society at the Fred C. Wescott Building, 426 Bridge St. Inquiries can be emailed to westhistorical@myfairpoint.net. The website is www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org.