April 11, 1990

Mayor Fred Wescott may veto the Westbrook City Council order accepting 11.2 acres of Mill Brook valley land from the developers of the proposed Woodbury Estates housing. He said Monday that he thinks the Maine Department of Environmental Protection ought to review that development. Its 16 house lots are at the top of precipitous slopes above the valley in one of the city’s most scenic areas. Several of the lots would have driveways opening directly onto Route 302. If the city accepts the land, the developers escape the need for DEP review. They own 30 acres and anything over 20 acres is reviewed by the DEP. They acknowledge that one reason for the land give is to take their project under 20 acres and out of DEP review.

The Westbrook School Committee will get out the shears (or snippers) tonight as it starts back through a $15.8 million budget for 1990-91, and the City Council will get its first look at the city side of the budget April 17. The combined cost of doing government in Westbrook is likely to push the $35.80 tax rate up by something like $4 – more than 10 percent.

In advertisements, signs of spring: John’s Perennials, 251 Cumberland St., Westbrook, now open for the season – stop by and see what’s growing. Sweets ‘N’ Eats opening for the season Saturday, April 14, 680 Gray Road, Gorham. Soft serve ice cream, frozen yogurt and hard ice cream. Our famous fried clams and homemade onion rings. Come meet Billy the Bunny Saturday and Sunday.

Beverly Morton, 12, a student at Westbrook Junior High School, is aiming to be a contestant is the Portland Miss Preteen pageant, May 26. She is now seeking sponsors in the community. It will be her first time competing for anything like this.

The Gorham High School debate team dominated competition at the state tournament in Lewiston March 17, picking up nine trophies and the title of state champions.

On April 19, the Jacobs Brothers Gospel Quartet, Dillsburg, Pa., will be in concert at the White Rock Baptist Church at 7 p.m. The concert is scheduled in connection with the church’s current celebration of its 150th anniversary.

April 12, 2000

Make sure you’re in a comfortable position and let your wrist do the work. That’s Shirley Wilder’s advice to anyone learning how to weld. Wilder, 85, of McLellan Road, Gorham, started working as a welder on Liberty Ships in 1942, when she was 27 years old and weighed 108 pounds. She was one of 13 in the first welding class ever at the South Portland shipyard. “A lot of people looked down on us because women don’t do that sort of thing. Today, they do. I didn’t mind whether they looked down at me. It was an honest living.” She earned $2.20 and hour.

How would you feel about 60 to 80 apartments in a clustered housing development on 40 acres of fields now belonging to former May Donald Brydon, plus 4 aces of commercial development along Route 302, Westbrook’s City Council was asked Monday? The answer, to real estate agent and would-be developer Tim Flaherty and surveyor and land planner David Titcomb, seemed to be agreeable, but the council wants more particulars.

The former Phi Mu Delta fraternity house at the corner of the School Street entrance to the University of Southern Maine in Gorham will be razed in a fire training class by the first week of August, Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre announced Friday. Phi Mu Delta no longer exists on the USM campus since its local charter was withdrawn by the school in 1993. The 40-year-old house, which is in disrepair, is empty.

The day after an American Journal report March 29 that Westbrook is negotiating with Pine Tree Waste to take all the city’s solid waste starting in October, the city got a prickly letter from Dale Olmstead, board chairman of Regional Waste Systems, where the city’s rubbish now goes. The letter says RWS won’t renew Westbrook’s associate membership agreement and starting Oct. 20, services provided to the city would end.

Gorham Town Manager David Cole is recommending a 2000-2001 town budget of $7,465,323, up 8.48 percent. It represents a $583,848 spending increase, but it would add only 1 cent to the tax rate. Still to come is the school budget.

Raymond and Cheryl Barnes, North Street, Gorham, are back from the Kingsville, Texas, Naval Air Station, where they attended the “Wings of Gold” ceremony in which their son, Raymond Jr., was designated as a Navy pilot.

Tim Gillis is taking over this spring as coach of the Westbrook High School boys tennis team. He played tennis for Westbrook High School in 1985-86 and is also the school’s varsity soccer coach.

Dr. Albert D’Arche, a well-known physician, occupied this house at 782 Main St., at the corner of Spring Street, for many years. The house was eventually purchased by the Chevron Oil Co. and demolished to make way for a service station. The business eventually became a Humphrey Farms Store. C.N. Brown Co. purchased the business and opened a Big Apple Store. The old building was demolished several years ago and a new Big Apple store was built on the site. 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. Photo and research courtesy of Mike Sanphy