April 19, 1989

The Westbrook Community Hospital will soon receive a bequest of around $750,000 from the estate of Ruth Hills, the widow of Dr. Louis Hills. The Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church has already received $187,000 and has temporarily invested the money. Both bequests seem to be without restrictions. Mrs. Hills died in 1972, but left the money in trust to benefit her daughter-in-law while she was living. The daughter-in-law died in December. There were no grandchildren. The Hills’ only child, Louis, died a few years before his mother in a fall. The total left by Mrs. Hills is valued at $1.1 million. Smith College, her alma mater, also has received a bequest.

Regional Waste Systems has agreed to pay $3 million for 212 acres in Gorham along the Presumpscot River near Moser’s Corner, which will be used as a stump dump. The owners are keeping 50 acres on Route 25, which they plan to develop in small commercial and industrial lots. The land, zoned for industry and held for many years by the family of trucking company owner Herbert Ginn and then by the Greater Portland Building Fund, was bought in 1985 by Mark Plummer, of F.S. Plummer Co.; Harvey Sawyer, of Allied Engineering; and Jay Loftus, developer of the One City Center project in Portland. Under the Ross Grant name, they proposed an ambitious mixed-use development that included 900 units of housing. Other than a fancy sign, nothing ever came of that. The deal ends a two-year search by RWS for a regional “reclamation center” for the disposal of demolition debris that cannot be burned at its new trash-to-energy plant on Blueberry Road in Portland.

A proposal for a $4.6 million, 100-unit public housing project for the elderly on Alderman Alexander Juniewicz’s 25-acre property on East Bridge Street was received by the Westbrook City Council last night. Juniewicz is on vacation in North Carolina this week. The Westbrook Housing Authority has an option on the land until Sept. 8, its executive director, James Smith, said. He is trying to arrange financing that would permit lower-than-market-rate rents for 80 of the apartments. He declined to say how much the housing authority would pay for the land.

The Gorham School Committee passed a 1989-1990 school budget of $9,471,364 this week after shaving of more that $200,000 from the original budget presented by Superintendent Constance Goldman. If this budget is finally approved by the Town Council, it will be an 18.6 percent increase in the total budget and will require a 15.6 percent hike in the local appropriation.

Gorham’s school outdoor athletic complex got a big boost Saturday from student athletes, parents and track coaches who tool part in a first-ever clean-up, paint-up, fix-up day. The complex was groomed into shape for the spring track and baseball season. The Gorham Athletic Boosters coordinated the event, which saw a fresh coat of paint applied to the concession stand, benches, time and score tables, and a new large dugout.

As the Gorham Arts Council prepares for the seventh annual Celebrate Gorham Day, plans are being put together for the 1989 parade, July 8. Groups and individuals, organizations and businesses are welcome to participate in the parade, as well as musical units, floats, antique cars, horses, fire engines, bicycles and unicycles.

April 21, 1999

Until last week, the city of Westbrook had been saying Sappi’s paper mill was worth $251 million, and spending accordingly. On Thursday, it agreed with Sappi: the mill is actually worth $140 million for this tax year (through June 30), will be worth $125 million for the tax year that starts July 1 and for the year that starts July 1, 2000, would be worth only $95 million, if the mill weren’t shutting anything down. Realistically, the city figures it will only be able to tax the mill on around $55 million of value next year, because of all the machinery that’s to be closed and moved out. That’s around a 76 percent drop from the current taxable value. The figures translate into $2.66 million less in taxes for the coming year’s budget than the city would have gotten and, counting the shutdown losses, $4.4 million less for the next year and probably all years after.

Superintendent Robert Hall will throw out the first pitch to Lisa Blais Manning as a Westbrook versus Biddeford softball game opens the new Westbrook High School athletic field April 21. Fundraising for the fields is lagging, however. Only $27,000 of the $225,000 goal has come in. “Raising money for this project has been more difficult than anyone imagined,” said Bruce Doughty, chairman of the fundraising effort.

Westbrook’s newest public housing project is in financial trouble and looking to the federal government for help. Larrabee Village, billed as the nation’s first assisted living public housing when it opened in 1997, expected to collect rents based on tenant incomes of at least $16,250. It found out too late that that’s the most income tenants can have, meaning that rental income is much below expectations. Furthermore, the Westbrook Housing Authority, which built and runs Larrabee Village, expected $5,440,500 in a five-year subsidy from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is only getting $3,636,080. “We are having an ongoing dialogue with HUD,” said the housing authority’s Susan Eldridge, formerly assistant director who took over as acting direction last year after James Smith resigned.

Westbrook residents will vote April 27 on borrowing $2,830,000 to add three new classrooms and a gymnasium and cafeteria to the Canal School. With interest over the next 20 years, the total cost of the project will be $4,315,750. The state has agreed to contribute $682,000. Last week’s announcement that Sappi is cutting 315 jobs at is Westbrook paper mill could have an impact on the vote. “I am concerned for the taxpayers, but I hope people will think of the long term and not the short term,” said School Superintendent Robert Hall.

School bus drivers and parents crowded into the Gorham School Committee’s regular meeting Wednesday in hope of discouraging the board from turning the town’s school busing over to a private mega-corporation, Ontario, Canada-based Laidlaw Transit Inc. Chairman Jane Golding refused to allow any public comment. School Superintendent Irene Bender, who is stepping down this summer after one year on the job, said that an outside contractor would provide better training for drivers than the school department can provide. “The drivers deserve more support than what we are providing,” she said.

The Gorham School Committee accepted the resignation of Lorraine Stickney on Wednesday night. She is retiring after 38 years as high school librarian. “I know she will be missed and I thank her,” said committee member William Neily.

50 YEARS AGO

The Westbrook American reported on April 15, 1964, that Mrs. Raymond Burke was elected president of the Little Falls Parent-Teacher Association at its annual meeting.

Mr. and Mrs. Alton McLeese of Buxton were proud parents of a baby girl, Beverly Ann, born on March 28.

Taken in the 1960s, this shows Main Street at Carpenter Street. The building on the left was occupied by Hood’s Drug Store on the first floor and George’s Barber Shop on the second floor. The third floor was an apartment. Next door was Day’s Jewelry Store on the first floor and the Marshall Studio on the upper floors. Carpenter Street ran between this building and the building to the right of it, the Scates Building, occupied on the first floor by Westbrook Power Co. and LaChance Drug Store. Westbrook City Hall and the Municipal Court were on the second floor and Temple Lodge 86 A.F. & A.M. (Masons) occupied the third floor. A Civil Defense office was in the basement. These buildings were demolished by urban renewal and Carpenter Street no longer exists. A one-story commercial building, parking lot and CVS Pharmacy now occupy the site. 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.Photo and research courtesy of Mike Sanphy