Dec. 7, 1988

The Soviet Sister City program hit a rock in the road in Westbrook’s City Council meeting Monday. Asked to lease two rooms in the old high school at $1 a year, the council sent the request to its Community Services Committee, where it will come under the gavel of the alderman who has most steadily opposed the program – Malcolm Noyes. The discussion revealed for the first time that city money may have helped pay Mayor Philip Spiller’s and other expenses on the recent trip of four persons to Archangel, the city of the USSR that has agreed to be Greater Portland’s Sister City. This came out as Noyes and Alderman Fred Wescott grilled Dan Glover, president of the Sister Cities Committee, on why only Westbrook among municipalities has given money ($1,000) to the committee. Glover said Westbrook has been the only city the committee has asked, “but we’ll be applying to the others Jan. 1, 1989.”

Anita Durfee of Old Orchard Beach is suing the town of Gorham for denying her the right to replace an old camper trailer on the Presumpscot River with a slightly larger trailer. Durfee filed suit in Cumberland County Superior Court Nov. 7 seeking a reversal of an Oct. 13 ruling by the Zoning Board of Appeals. The ruling upheld the code enforcement officer’s decision to order the removal of the replacement trailer on grounds the 7,500-square-foot lot is too small and doesn’t conform to state shoreland zoning laws or state setback requirements. Durfee is in Florida and could not be reached for comment. She said at the zoning board hearing she used the trailer as a weekend vacation retreat and was forced to replace it because it was “too dilapidated to even try to repair.”

Westbrook has a couple of backup sites but expects to be able to continue dumping street snow into the Presumpscot River at Saccarappa Falls Park, Public Works Director George Goggins said this week. For the time being, at least, Westbrook does not intend to follow Portland’s lead in applying for an exemption from a new state law that bars water dumping except in unusual circumstances. Westbrook for many years has dumped street snow into a deep and turbulent pool at the bottom of the falls and it soon disappears.

Falmouth and Westbrook have reached an agreement on the boundary they share. Westbrook’s director of engineering services, Donald Mannett, said the agreed-on line makes no shifts of property from what has been understood but pinpoints boundary monuments and other markers. On stretches where monuments are far apart, trees have been blazed and daubed with blue paint along the line. “There are so many blue blazes out there a blind man could follow it,” Mannett said.

Dr. Burt Knapp, a founder of the Gorham Land Trust, received word Dec. 3 that the Department of Environmental Protection has given approval for the construction of the River Crossing development. This clears the way for the land trust to implement the first phase of its plans to preserve natural and scenic areas in Gorham. The River Crossing development plans to build 10 homes on 40 acres on the Little River, near its crossing at the Gray Road. Fourteen acres along the river will be kept essentially wild.

Dec. 9, 1998

George Googins, Westbrook’s public works director the past 13 years and a public works employee for the past 25 years, will retire Jan. 4. Aldermen approved a new ordinance Monday that will entitle him to a special, one-time retirement payment, believed to be $27,000. Googins, 58, has been out of work the past three or four weeks on medical leave, and he may continue to be out on medical leave until his official retirement, said James Bennett, administrative assistant to the mayor.

With no comments or questions, Westbrook aldermen approved Monday night a property tax break that could total $46 million or more for the developers of a $200 million natural gas power plant in an expanded Five Star Industrial Park. Owners of the plant will be required to pay $1.5 million a year in taxes over the next two decades regardless of changes in the plant’s valuation or the city’s tax rate. As part of the deal, the city will also borrow $5 million to pay for a road leading to the plant and for sewer improvements that must be associated with the project. The planned power plant will be owned and operated by Calpine Corp., a San Jose, Calif.-based company that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Having reached agreement with John O’Leary and Bob Place, the Needham, Mass., partners who have been obtaining approvals and permits under the name Westbrook Power LLC, Calpine will be putting up the approximately $200 million needed to build the plant.

The new homes on the new Black Brook Road in Gorham have something their owners didn’t expect – pollution in their wells. It isn’t much pollution, the state says. Any is too much, the owners say. Work on the nearby New Portland Road by the state during the summer involved blasting, which is said to have cracked the bedrock and freed up some garage wastes that now can be detected in Black Brook Road wells.

A revitalized memorial plaque listing Gorham veterans of all wars of the 20th century will be placed on the Gorham Municipal Center. The memorial has been restored by the Gorham Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars. The Town Council has given permission for placing the memorial plaque in the Municipal Center.

50 YEARS AGO

The Westbrook American reported on Dec. 4, 1963, that Mrs. Charles Parker of Hillview Road was chairwoman of the Gorham Garden Club’s annual Christmas home lighting contest.

Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Stevens of Groveville in Buxton seated 24 at their Thanksgiving table.

In this undated view looking down Mechanic Street, the large building in the center is 901 Main St., with Lawrence B. Seavey’s garage and used-car dealership occupying the first floor. The small building on the right is 908 Main St., at the corner of Mechanic Street. This building was occupied by Lawrence B. Seavey’s Auto Parts and Tire Store. Cyr’s Beauty Shop later occupied the building. 901 Main Street is now the Armory Apartments. The small building at 908 Main St. was demolished during urban renewal and the site is now part of a municipal parking lot. 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.