July 13, 1988

A gain in valuation from new construction at S.D. Warren paper mill is helping the Westbrook City Council deal with increases of 5 to 6 percent in city expenses and 17 percent in school expenses. Warren accounts for a large part of the $17,100,000 gain in valuations reported to the council by City Assessor James Jessen. He said the city’s total valuation will rise to $439,899,400. City Council President Donald Esty Jr. said that the tax rate increase of $2.80 that loomed tow weeks ago has been brought down to about $2.10 for each $1,000 worth of property.

Having spent $5,000 to find out they will have to pay $52,000 more, Westbrook aldermen were hit Monday with still more bad news about the Walker Memorial Library foundation: It may delay, and therefore raise the cost of, the library addition now under construction. They didn’t take the news happily. Alderman Fred Wescott said he wants the engineers to come to a meeting to explain. “They’ll probably charge us to be here,” he said, and his face fell further when someone on the city staff said yes, they would. The council voted in June to pay up to $5,000 to Neill & Gunter, engineers, and JSA Inc., architects, and have them redesign the areas where the present library’s foundation will be jointed to the foundation of the addition. Monday, they got the bill for the removal and placement of the present library’s foundation – $52,000. Librarian Carolyn Watkins said the work may take six weeks, and that it may mean that the city will have to bear the added costs caused by the dely.

The Westbrook Art Alliance will present the ninth annual Sidewalk Art Show in downtown Westbrook on July 16. The show will again feature arts and crafts and a number of repeat artists, including Rosalie Barden of Gorham, whose watercolors are among the many favorites of past shows. Other artists include Doris Schoonmaker, Charles Boyd Sr., Greta Volicer, Art Hahn, Robert Drewal, Ed Giroux, Mildred Giroux, Harriet Gallant, Nathalie Crozier, Dee Roma, Irene Duplissis, James Dudwell, Evelyn Newton, Marvin Jacobs, Marguerite Perkins, Ken and Ginny Gale, Helen Flint, Susan Motta, Sylvia Orchard, Vi Hathaway and Diana Berk.

Salaries of $48,069 each for David Wallace and William Michaud are provided in a new contract covering Westbrook school administrators. The 13 men and women will be paid a total of $525,787 in the coming year. Wallace has just been named assistant superintendent for instruction. Michaud succeeds him as high school principal.

After mulling the possible reasons for the failure of the Municipal Center expansion plan in the June referendum, Gorham town councilors in a July 5 meeting agreed to start the process to bring the issue back before voters in November. That process would include getting a new bid on the expansion project, and holding another public hearing before the council official decides whether to put it back on the ballot. Most of the councilors at the meeting affirmed their support for the $1.3 million proposal, which failed by a 642-502 vote in June.

For fans of country western music, the University of Southern Maine’s Russell Square Summer Theatre presents “The Magnolia Club,” a nostalgic country-western musical revue, through July 17 at Russell Hall on the Gorham campus. The cast includes Lonnie Manchester, a Windham High School student; Mike Nobel of Gorham, who has toured with his program of original songs; and Geary Smith of Gorham, a USM theater student.

More than 300 households in Friendly Village and the Burnham and Hodgdon Road areas of Gorham have long had their mail delivered by the Scarborough Post Office, which had a carrier going right by them anyway. All that will change July 16, when the Gorham post office will take over that job. Scarborough Postmaster Jerald Paradis says the change is part of an ongoing effort to have people get mail service from the post office in their own town.

Carl Nielsen, East Bridge Street in Westbrook, is the new Maine state president of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He will attend the Eagles international convention in New Orleans July 31-Aug. 4.

July 15, 1998

Thousands of people visited the University of Maine’s Gorham campus Thursday through Sunday for FinnFest USA, an annual festival held in different parts of the country celebrating Finnish-American culture. Over 3,000 people registered and countless more came for a day or an afternoon. About 600 slept in dorms on campus. The festival drew folks from 42 states and from countries as far away as the Dominican Republic, France, Sweden and, of course, Finland. “We’ve far exceeded our expectations,” said Shirley Clark of Gardner, Mass., the registration chairman.

Central Maine Power Co. wants to give preferential access to its electric transmission grid to existing generating plants after deregulation in 2000. The move is seen as a threat to the proposed gas-fired power plans in Westbrook, Gorham and throughout the state. The proposed American National Power gas-fired plant in Gorham and General Electric gas-fired plant in Westbrook need CMP transmission lines. Meanwhile, the Westbrook Planning Board gave 7-0 approval last week for the site plant of GE’s proposed 528-megawatt plant on the Carmichael property off Saco Street. Construction can begin as soon as state environmental permits are issued, but may be delayed by limited access to CMP’s electric transmission lines.

Former Westbrook alderman Don Richards had a different kind of holiday on July 4, undergoing open-heart surgery at Maine Medical Center. He’s at his Saco Street home recovering. Pains he first thought were digestive turned out to be from two completely blocked arteries. He will be out of work about three months as his chest heals. Richards praised the employment policies of Electronic Manufacturing Services, where he works.

Westbrook’s Committee of the Whole voted 4-3 Monday to relocate the high school tennis courts to an unknown location and at an unknown cost to make their site available for a future recreation center. The recommendation will come before the City Council July 29. Recreation Director Randy Peters told aldermen that the tennis court site would make sewer, water and electricity connections cheaper if the $1.7 million recreation center is built. It would have two regulation basketball courts with bleachers, an aerobics room and multipurpose room. The current rec center on Foster Street is in frequent need of repair and is too small to handle residents’ growing recreation demands, said Peters.

Area golfers can look forward to a new 18-hole golf course in a few years, at Westerly Winds recreation facility off Cumberland Street in Westbrook. The Planning Board approved plans for the new course last week. The Department of Environmental Protection also must issue permits. Ronald Edgecomb, who bought Westerly Winds in 1985, said the first nine holes should be ready for play by spring of 2000. Construction of the back nine will begin after the first nine are complete, but only if the Planning Board decides that parking is adequate. The new course will be carved out of undeveloped land. The site totals 213 acres. “There’ll be very little earth-moving for the first nine,” said Edgecomb. “Only a few holes will have to be cut out of the woods. Most of the land for the back nine in wooded.”

The buildings in this photo were purchased and demolished in 1964 by the Westbrook Trust Co. for a new Cumberland Mills branch of the bank. The building, 5 and 7 Cumberland St., was occupied by Frank’s Variety Store (Frank Duffney) and Stanley’s Barber Shop (Earl F. Stanley). The upper floors were vacant. The building on the left was a duplex apartment house. J. Warren Laffin owned both buildings. Westbrook Trust Co.’s Cumberland Mills branch moved from the Warren Block into the new building in late 1964. Westbrook Trust later became Norstar Bank, Northeast Bank and then Fleet Bank, which closed this office and sold the building to Frank Coyne. Foye’s Carpet Company was located there before moving to Park Road. Thanksgiving Bakery & Eatery was the next tenant and that business closed a few years ago. Hoggy’s Market presently occupies the building. 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.