March 8, 1989

Seven gold medals hang from the neck of Tom Trecartin, recognizing the Westbrook High School senior as the undisputed, undefeated state wrestling champion in the 140-pound weight class. Coach Dennis Walsh said Trecartin has smashed every 140-pound record ever made at Westbrook High School.

The age of the negative campaign has struck in Gorham, as charges of conflict of interest and excessive travel expenses have hit some Town Council candidates in the weeks before next Tuesday’s election. Some of the accusations surfaced at last Sunday’s candidates forum, when Burleigh Loveitt, Dan Willett and Carol Day were all forced to respond to phoned-in questions that challenged them one way or the other. Those three, along with Allene Bowler and Philip Charest, are competing for the three available seats.

Westbrook police are holding a black shaving kit that contains two hearing aids and hope that whoever lost it sees this before he goes out and buys new ones. The kit was found about three weeks ago and turned into the station.

Westbrook High School junior Lisa Bailey captured the Miss Maine Teen USA title Sunday, becoming a rare triple-crown winner in the process. Lisa, daughter of Nella Bickford of Westbrook and Steven Michael Bailey of Cumberland, won the Miss Photogenic and Best Costume awards as well as the title. Asked about her reaction to the weekend’s events, Lisa said, “It hasn’t sunk in yet.” She completed along with 33 other contestants.

The Westbrook Woman’s Club is donating the book, “Prominent Personalities of the Maine Federation of Women’s Clubs,” to the Walker Memorial Library and the Warren Memorial Library. The book is dedicated in memory of Mrs. Paul Smith (Carolyn), a charter member of the Westbrook Woman’s Club who was a member until her death in 1988.

This spring will mark a new beginning for Westbrook Little League, with the completion of a new field at the Warren League Complex on Bridge Street. Once considered a luxury, creating a new field behind the existing league field became a necessity last year when the Prides Corner School was expanded and the league lost the use of the field there. Planning for the move began five years ago. Funds were raised by the league’s 90 or so volunteers. The old field will also get some much-need renovations. Both fields will be served by a new concession stand, built by Westbrook High School shop students.

Phyllis Gay of 190 Westbrook Gardens was appointed at a special meeting of the Westbrook School Committee Monday to fill the unexpired term of James Garland, who recently left Westbrook. Gay has lived in Westbrook for 16 years. She has raised four sons who have all been through the Westbrook school system.

March 10, 1999

“We are looking at other sites in greater Portland as we continue to expand. Of course, Gorham can be considered part of the greater Portland area,” Bernie Rogan, spokesman for Shaw’s Supermarkets in East Bridgewater, Mass., told the American Journal. Shaw’s policy does not allow the store to comment on possible sites until they receive a permit for construction, said Rogan, who was responding to last week’s American Journal story that the supermarket chain may build at Mosher’s Corner in Gorham. He hinted that the chain may be looking for space in Westbrook, as well. At Target Stores, based in Minneapolis, also mentioned in the story, spokeswoman Kristin Kanach said, “Target has no immediate plans in Maine, but we look at quite a number of sites over a year.”

The Family Dollar Store chain took out sign permits for the former LaVerdiere’s-Rite-Aid space at 880 Main St. in Westbrook’s downtown recently, and sent a crew of electricians who began filling a Dumpster with old wiring from above the store’s suspending ceiling. Then they found out that Westbrook has an ordinance that would require a sprinkler system in the store, an expense one Family Dollar worker had heard estimated at $30,000. Family Dollar now has the project on hold and is pondering whether to go ahead. “With that kind of a cost involved, it definitely will hurt the return on investment on the project. It’s a big impact,” said a spokeswoman in the construction department at the chain’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.

Parents will have to give permission for their children to participate in a sixth-12th-grade Westbrook School Department drug and alcohol use survey the state will fund this spring, said assistant special education director Joe Driscoll. He said he level of participation among students could vary widely depending on the type of permission the state will require. “Active permission” would require each student to have a signed permission slip, he said, while “passive permission” would assume that all students have permission unless their parents object.

The Gorham School Department has built at $36,000 bus garage at the Public Works Department complex on Huston Road. The school transportation offices and the drivers’ break room moved to the new, 26-by-32-foot building the first of February. Maintenance staff took over the old bus garage next to the Shaw School.

Thinking spring: On March 16, Ann Jordan of Sebago Gardens will lead a program, “Creating Floral Arrangements,” for the Westbrook Woman’s Club, meeting at the Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church. Flower arrangements will be sold by auction. The Prides Corner Garden Club will meet at the Prides Corner Congregational Church on March 17 for a workshop on house plants. Those attending should bring plants that need to be potted, repotted or doctors to trade or give away.

The University of Southern Maine music and theater departments will perform “West Side Story,” with Jennifer DeDominici and Ethan Wright in the lead roles, March 12-20 in Russell Hall on the Gorham campus. Among those also in the cast are Leslie Guerin of Gorham, Chris Harrison of Buxton and Melissa Eltgroth of Westbrook.

50 YEARS AGO

The Westbrook American reported on March 4, 1964, that Mrs. James Golden and Mrs. David Irving of the Brandybrook Garden Club in Gorham were organizing a bus trip to Boston for the flower show.

In West Buxton, Barbara Elwell of Massachusetts was at home with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Elwell, for a week.

A coin-operated laundry was located for many years at 672 Main St., across from Riverbank Park. Philip Lourie was the proprietor. The business closed in 1973 and the building was later demolished. The site is presently a parking lot for a building that was later built at the rear of the lot. The building is presently occupied by Northern Gardens Restaurant, Kosmein Skin Care and T-N-T Nails. 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.