Aug. 23, 1989
Scarborough High School students can come use Westbrook High temporarily, the Westbrook School Committee unanimously decided Monday. But Westbrook won’t hold shorter classes to get out of the way earlier, as was originally suggested. Scarborough’s school department requested to hold double sessions at Westbrook High for up to 21?2 months, rent free, but with other expenses covered. Scarborough students will come by bus only. Scarborough High School is to undergo asbestos renovations.
Westbrook Together Day is coming. The committee, forced to cancel the event by June’s bad weather, is hard at work pulling all the strings back together for a first-ever September run, on Saturday, Sept. 16. It’ll be complete with a parade and Riverbank Park party.
The city’s engineering director sees water problems, and the city’s staff lawyer sees traffic problems, but Rowe Ford sees opportunity and plans a 20,000-square-foot truck sales and service center on Larrabee Road, Westbrook. The site is behind the Rowe Ford auto sales and service center at Larrabee Road and Main Street. Richard Sullivan, staff lawyer, called on the Westbrook Planning Board “to examine the parking requirements and the traffic circulation for the entire Ford facility in close detail prior to approving the site plan.”
It’s back to the drawing board for Paul “Bucky” Holloway and his group, who want to develop land along the Day Road in Gorham, near where it intersects with South Street. The 36-lot subdivision, which has been two years in the planning, has been stalled by areas of wetlands and concerns for deer that forage heavily in the area.
John Marcarelli and Peter Eckel are on everybody’s list. That is to say, they are being considered as a town manager in Gorham and as an administrative assistant in Westbrook. Marcarelli is an assistant town manager in Whitehall, Pa. Eckel is administrative assistant in Frederick County, Md. One of the men will be chosen soon in Westbrook, which has narrowed its search to only the two men. Gorham has six candidates remaining. Both municipalities hired the services of the Maine Municipal Association in the selection process.
Mary Langley, 86, makes and sells dolls from her home on South Street in Gorham. The dolls, which range in cost from $6 to $20, are sold by word of mouth and mostly when Langley decides to have a garage sale. She does not take orders and views the doll making as more of a hobby than a business. “I don’t need any trouble from the tax man,” she joked.
Aug. 25, 1999
Northern Utilities has filed a motion with the Public Utilities Commission aiming to block a multi-million dollar contract CMP Natural Gas Go. has signed with Calpine Corp., the California-based developers of the new power plant under construction off Saco Street in Westbrook, and to keep CMP from serving homes and businesses in Gorham with natural gas. CMP spokesman Roy Lane said yesterday the Northern Utilities has been slow to extend service to Gorham and would continue to move slowly unless the PUC allows other companies to compete. Northern Utilities spokesman Carol Churchill said that competition would be less efficient and more costly for natural gas customers.
Westbrook’s favorite new residents-to-be, the Calpine gas power plant folks, showed the city how nice they can be yesterday, throwing a beautiful catered lobster bake for 250 invited guests under a tent, with dance music by the Tony Boffa Band, champagne in glass flutes and an open bar, and china, real silverware and linen napkins on cloth tablecloths. Calpine started construction in March and expects the plant to be built and making and selling electricity by December of next year.
Gorham School Business Manager Dan O’Shea told the American Journal a few weeks ago that he was on the verge of signing a contract that would turn the town’s substitute teachers over to a private company, Massachusetts-based Opis Corp., without seeking public input or getting any kind of formal OK from the School Committee. Apparently, someone has intervened, because Gorham’s contract with Opis is now dead in the water. New Superintendent Michael Moore suggested to the School Committee Wednesday that it get involved in the issue with “a thoughtful” approach and perhaps in conjunction with other towns. Moore, 45, has been on the job in Gorham for six weeks now. He said he’s spent most of his first six weeks doing what needs to be done to get the schools open, including hiring about 45 new teachers.
The public is invited to meet Stanley J. Sawyer, Westbrook’s new school superintendent, during a community-wide reception planned by the School Committee for Friday, Aug. 27, at Riverbank Park. Other new school administrators will be on hand – Westbrook has a new business manager, vocational center director and high school and junior high school principals this year.
Westbrook High School won’t have a freshman football team this fall because not enough students are interested. Sixty-one students, including 16 freshmen, turned out for the team Aug. 12. At the end of the first week of preseason practice, however, 47 plays remained, of which only 12 were freshmen. That’s obviously too low to field a freshmen team, said Athletic Director Matt Nelson.
The Gorham High School Concert Band will be traveling to Washington, D.C., April 13-17, to be part of a national music festival to celebrate the bicentennial of the nation’s Capitol. Band director Ray Mathieu was recently informed that the concert band had been selected to represent Maine. The 80-member ensemble is working hard to raise enough money for the trip.
50 YEARS AGO
The Westbrook American reported on Aug. 19, 1964, that Mr. and Mrs. Charles Huntley of Dow Road in Gorham had attended the National Morgan Horse Show in Northampton, Mass.
West Buxton residents Gladys LeCornec, Stella Guimond, and Blanche Clark went to Kennebunkport to see the show “Glad Tidings” starring Tallulah Bankhead.
This is a view looking up Church Street from Main Street in 1974. The building in the right of the photo is Peter’s Store, also known as Peter’s Tea Room and Peter’s Fruit Store. The late Harry F.G. Hay operated his funeral business out of this location in the early 1900s prior to moving to 795 Main St, where the business continued for many years under his son, John W. Hay. Urban renewal demolished the old store and the buildings behind it to widen Church Street between Main Street and William Clarke Drive. 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.
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