July 12, 1989

A public hearing will be held Aug. 2 in Westbrook on a draft permit that will, for the first time, require that S.D. Warren Co. investigate and if necessary clean up past hazardous waste releases at their Westbrook plant. The hearing is being held by the Environmental Protection Agency. According to EPA engineer Jeanne Cosgrove, possible costs to the bill “could be in the millions.”

Westbrook Mayor Philip Spiller is undergoing tests in Mercy Hospital, to which he was sent Monday after he went to see a doctor about chest pains. He is in the cardiac care unit, not receiving visitors or phone calls. Meanwhile, in Gorham, Tax Assessor Bob Libby, who was due to take over as interim town manager Friday, suffered a heart attack July 2 at Beech Ridge Speedway in Scarborough. He is a patient at Maine Medical Center.

When Marybeth Baker of Harrison was a teenager in the ’70s, she painted cartoons on the windows of Phil’s Pizza across from Vallee’s Drug Store in Westbrook. Her reward was all the pizza she could eat while working. Today, Baker’s art is in books, and encompasses not only the illustrations, but also the text. Her subjects are Maynard the Moose, Lala Loon and their friends. Her newest book is “Maynard’s Allagash Friends.”

The Westbrook School Committee awarded the contract for Westbrook High School construction work Monday to Allied Construction Inc., Portland, at a total price of $5,282,072. Work should start in 20 days, with the total project cost planned to be $6,500,000. Allied’s bid was the third lowest.

Westbrook could open its cable TV franchises to new bidders if it doesn’t like the outcome of he battle for control of Time Inc., city staff lawyer Richard Sullivan told the City Council last week. Public Cable, which Time controls, holds the Westbrook franchise, but the city’s ordinance says that if control changes hands, the city can cancel the franchise under certain conditions. Local investors own 28 percent of Public Cable, but Time Inc. owns the rest, said Sullivan. Time is about to be taken over by Warner Brothers Communications or Paramount. Either one would have to go into debt deeply to pay the acquisition costs, and the result for Public Cable could be a rate increase, Sullivan said.

Advertisement: There’s a new Slick Chick at Full Belly Deli. It’s our latest combination sandwich! Chicken salad, crisp bacon, muenster cheese, lettuce and tomato on your choice of light or dark rye or our own bulkie (and a pickle spear) for only $3.85.

Gorham police are training with new 9 mm semi-automatic weapons that they say will give them maximum fire power while maintaining an acceptable level of safety. The decision to make the change comes at a time when several police departments are looking into upgrading their weapons.

The black bear that ran into the side of a truck on the River Road in South Windham June 13 may be the same bear sighted July 4 in Westbrook, around 31?2 miles away. A state game warden said it was “quite possible it was the same bear. If he finds a spot where there are easy pickings, he will stay.”

July 14, 1999

A division of Central Maine Power Co. will offer natural gas in Gorham. CMP Natural Gas, the joint venture between CMP and Energy East Corp. of New York that led to Energy East’s proposed takeover of CMP, has signed a big contract to provide natural gas to the new Westbrook power plan, opening the way for service to Gorham.

Westbrook School Committee Chairman Deborah Frank said Thursday that she may seek the Republican nomination to run for the Ward 1 City Council seat held by John O’Hara. O’Hara, an independent, said that he is “70 to 75 percent sure” that he will run for a third two-year term on the council. Frank is wrapping up her first four-year term on the School Committee. As a vigorously campaigning newcomer in 1995, she upset Democratic Ward 1 incumbent Shirley Jordan by 40 votes. With her plan to seek O’Hara’s seat, Frank is following in the footsteps of Republican Martha Day, who made the jump from School Committee chairman to at at-large city councilor two years ago.

Also in Westbrook politics, Ken Lefebvre, absent from the job for two years, is being urged by some to run for mayor again. Lefebvre, 44, said that he isn’t ruling it out, but he’s also not really thinking about it yet, especially since he’s not sure if fellow Democrat Donald Esty plans to seek a second term. “It’s flattering,” Lefebvre said Friday from a cellular phone on the golf course.

The Friendly Ice Cream Corp. has bought the lease of the former Exit 8 diner at the front of the Howard Johnson Motor Inn on Riverside Street and is tearing it apart and doing renovations, with plans to open it as a Friendly’s restaurant in a month or so, former owner Lewis Verrillo said. Verrillo ran the diner for the past 12 years.

The regional transportation planning organization PACTS thinks there should be a traffic light at Mosher’s Corner, where routes 25 and 237 meet in Gorham. Gorham Town Councilor Burleigh Loveitt suggested building a rotary at the intersection. PACTS is studying how traffic flow is affecting the Gorham Industrial Park and how another expansion of the park might affect traffic flow. Executive Director John Duncan said in a Gorham Town Council meeting last week that preliminary data has revealed three needs that should be addressed: unsafe travel conditions at the intersections of Libby Avenue and Route 25, and routes 237 and 25; traffic congestion at commercial sites on lower Main Street; and inadequate vehicle access to the industrial park.

Fran Evans, North Gorham, provided an overnight for Honduran youth who came for the Honduran Youth Exchange program. Six young people and a pastor stayed with Evans, and six with Marge Hodgkin, Deering Road, for a night before heading out for a week at Pilgrim Lodge, the UCC summer camp in Litchfield.

---

50 YEARS AGO

The Westbrook American reported on July 8, 1964, that Donald Doyle, principal of Gorham Village Elementary School, had returned from Orono where he took a three-week course at the University of Maine.

Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Davis of Bar Mills and three children were visiting the World’s Fair.

---

This view of Dana Court from Bridge Street was taken in the 1800s. The wooden building on the left is the carriage house for an old brick mansion that stood on Bridge Street at Dana Court. Referred to as the Bean Mansion, it was demolished in 1974. Buildings behind it on Dana Court were mill houses occupied by employees of the Westbrook Manufacturing Co., which was located on the right side between Dana Court and the Presumpscot River. The large brick building to the right was a warehouse built in the 1850s for the Westbrook Manufacturing Co. In later years this building was occupied by the C. E. Noyes Tire Retreading Co. The company went out of business and the building remained vacant for years before being destroyed by a spectacular fire in 1993. To see more historical photos and artifacts, visit the Westbrook Historical Society at the Fred C. Wescott Building, 426 Bridge St. It is open Tuesdays and Saturdays, 9 a.m.-noon, and the first Wednesday of each month at 1:30 p.m., September-June. Inquiries can be emailed to westhistorical@myfairpoint.net. The website is www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org.