March 15, 1989

The year 1988 saw a turnaround for Westbrook Community Hospital. Revenues climbed to $3.5 million after dropping to $1.9 million the year before. The next task is to bring the hospital into the black, said Joel P. Rogers, chief executive officer. “And we’re close,” he said. Growth has been made through special services, including a new program for eating disorders, restructuring the management of its substance abuse program and offering a two-week in-patient treatment program along with outpatient and longer-term programs. It also advertised to make the community more aware of its emergency room capabilities, brining in 1,000 more emergency patients in a year. The part that still lags, and actually declined in 1988, was general care, Rogers said.

Advertisement: Joe’s finally done it! Fried clams at the Cornerstone, 3 Bridge St., Westbrook! Yes, that’s right, not just the most superb in Italian cuisine, we have added to our fantastic seafood selection. You have tried the rest, now it’s time for the best!

About 100 Westbrook Regional Vocational Center students are poised to begin work on what will be the largest modular home ever construction at Westbrook High School. The three-bedroom home, an L-shaped building measuring 55 feet by 56 feet, will be larger than its 24-foot-by 46-foot predecessor. To accommodate its size, vocational students spent last fall enlarging a cement building pad outside the center from 2,000 to 8,100 feet. The project, which will take a year to complete, represents the 25th home to come out of a joint venture of the Westbrook Rotary Club and the vocational school spanning 32 years. The home will be worth $50,000 when completed.

Country music singer Rosanna Morelli, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jerome A. Morelli, Hillside Road, Westbrook, has won again. She is now headed for national competition in California in May. She won four awards at the Down East Country Music Association’s annual Awards Show in Waterville. Rosanna is a graduate of Westbrook High School. She rides and raises quarter horses. She also does commercials and jingles for radio stations.

Four acres of young pine trees on the corner of New Portland and Johnson roads near Gorham Village will make way for a new 84-unit elderly housing facility and 46-bed nursing home. Plans for the project won approval from the Gorham Planning Board last week. The developers are Bill Gillis, Joe Hogan and Ward Hand. Hand is now administrator of the Gorham Health Center nursing home, formerly Gorham Manor. They hope to break ground by the third week in April for the new project, to be located just across a field from the present Gorham Health Center nursing home on New Portland Road. Ernest E. Cressy sold the land for $320,000 in December, according to real estate transfers.

Gorham residents have been traveling this winter: Harvey and Beverly Sawyer have returned from a 21?2-week trip to Florida. They stopped for a few days near Orlando, where they visited her aunt, Elizabeth Gray. Mrs. Robert Russell, Fort Hill Road, has returned from a two-week skiing trip to Arlberg, Austria. Robert Parsons, Buck Street, has returned from Fort Myers, Fla., where he visited his grandparents, Martha and Howard Parsons, who went down in January.

March 17, 1999

Meeting in private executive session Monday, Westbrook’s City Council got a briefing on what appraiser Ray Granville’s firm thinks it can defend for a value on the Sappi paper mill, if Sappi’s abatement requests go to a hearing before the state Board of Assessment Review. Nobody was saying what numbers they heard. “We’re looking at an agreement with Sappi, or a decision whether we’re going to fight it out before the state Board of Assessment Review in the next two weeks,” said Jim Bennett, administrative assistant to Mayor Donald Esty. “If we settle, and we have somewhere between a $1 million and $3 million shortfall coming in compared to last year, how are we going to deal with it?” Bennett asked.

The Gorham Planning Board voted 6-0 on March 8 to recommend that the Town Council pass proposed changes in downtown zoning. It also recommended that the council authorize a specific design plan for the downtown and develop a guideline handbook. Businesses are pleased with the board to increase the amount of light allowable under the changes, and the board agreed to recommend doubling the maximum allowable light level in parking areas. But David Kinglsey, a broker in the C.N. Brown plans to develop the corner of Main and Mechanic streets, said that the town was “overstepping its bounds. Gorham is taking away the rights of the owners,” he said.

A $100,000 state Department of Corrections grant that will put a probation officer in Windham, Gorham and Lake Region high schools also includes money to set up after-school recreation programs for troubled youth. In Gorham, those programs will be housed at Robie Gym. Cindy Hazelton, director of Gorham’s recreation department, said that the town will be “using recreation as prevention.” Crime in Gorham peaks when school gets out, Hazelton said. The probation officer who has started on the job is Tim Farr, 57, a former Westbrook police officer who worked for the city from 1966-1986. Farr believes that working in the schools – he’ll devote about 12 hours a week to each – will enable him to catch students before they get into trouble. He has worked the past few years as a probation officer with a caseload of about 100 teenagers in Gorham, Windham, Gray, New Gloucester, Raymond, Casco and Naples.

Something small has been a big problem at Saccarappa School – head lice. The Westbrook School Department has shampooed carpets at the school and treated the school with pest killers over the weekend. This strain of lice, however, seems to be resistant to the chemicals that are being thrown at them. It’s causing an uproar among parents, and at least one teacher is also said to have been directly affected.

Hannaford Bros. has no immediate plans to expand its Gorham Shop ‘n Save store, Beryl Wolfe, spokeswoman for he company, said yesterday. She denied a rumor that the chain holds an option to buy the house at 17 Mechanic St., adjacent to the store’s lot, for a possible expansion of the store into a “Super” Shop ‘n Save. “There has been no recent purchase of land,” Wolfe said. “The rumor of the option is incorrect.”

A CLOSER LOOK

The Westbrook American reported on March 11, 1964, that Wilma Jean Gould of Gorham was honored at a pre-bridal shower on Feb. 28 given by Mrs. Donald Mitsmenn.

Joseph Wallace, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Wallace of Groveville, celebrated his 14th birthday with a party at home.

This old home, which stood on Main Street at Pleasant Street, was known as the Ricker House. Mobil Oil Co. purchased the house and demolished it to make way for a Mobil service station that was operated for many years by Ray LeTarte. He closed the business and the building was sold and renovated to house the present occupant, Angelone’s Pizza. 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.