Sept. 12, 1990

Municipalities that use the Animal Refuge League in Westbrook are going to have to pay fees for the first time or run the risk of having their stray dogs and cats left to fend for themselves. The ARL, a private institution, has accepted stray dogs and cats from area communities at no charge since its creation in 1911. New programs, higher costs and the decision to accept animals from Portland as of May have combined to force the shelter to ask towns in the area to contribute to the cost of running the ARL. The fees will be based on the human population base in each town.

After the Planning Board voted 5-1 against it and the City Council seemed ready to turn thumbs down, the sun finally is shining on William Gowen’s hopes for a zone change to permit a shopping center at Westbrook’s Duck Pond Corner. Westbrook aldermen voted 5-2 Monday to change the zoning for him. Final action is due Sept. 24. Mayor Fred C. Wescott spoke in favor of the change.

His widowed mother’s house is sinking because of the Portland Water District contractor’s mistakes and nobody will help her, Thomas Surgeon told the Westbrook City Council in an emotional appeal least week. Aldermen agreed to ask the city’s top engineering, public works and inspecting officers to look at the home of Bernice Sturgeon, at 22 Dunn St. The city has no legal responsibility but it may have a moral responsibility, some said.

“Someone stole my flag right off my porch,” Westbrook Mayor Fred C. Wescott, who lives at 78 Brackett St., told the City Council Monday. “I hope they fly it as proudly as I did.” Wescott said he has replaced it, and went on to lecture the council on how to respond to vandalism: “If they break something, you rebuild. That’s the key.” The subject came up as aldermen worried about plans for a wooden gazebo on land behind the John Hay funeral home that borders the walkway along the Prescumpscot River.

Harry T. Foote, publisher of the American Journal, was named Journalist of the Year Saturday at the Maine Press Association’s annual convention. The honor was given not so much for work he has done in the last year as for the quality of the news work he continues to do in what has become an uncommonly long career. He began work as a newspaper reporter in Maine fresh out of Bowdoin College in 1938 and has been an active newsman ever since, with time out for service in World War II. Harry remains a key player in bringing the American Journal to its readers every Wednesday. He attends late-night meetings and writes the stories. He gathers a good share of the popular feature police notes and chooses titles for them. He sells advertising. He helps get that advertising set into type and pasted up. He lays out the general outlines of the paper each week. He still does some of the copy editing and he writes thoughtful editorials on issues that touch readers.

Gorham’s Village Elementary School might now be referred to as one of the centers of art as East Winthrop sculptor Ron Cross works to complete “True North,” a 50-50-foot sculpture at the school. The Village School will hold at open house at the end of the month, mainly for parents of students.

Sixty-four friends and relatives were on hand Aug. 24 to help celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of Edwin and Aldana Hawes, Canal Street, Gorham, at Verrillo’s. The buffet dinner party was given by daughter and son-in-law Jackie and Antonio Direnzo, Mosher Road. Edwin and Aldana were married Aug. 23, 1930, in Newport. They have three children, nine grandchildren and many more great-grandchildren.

Sept. 13, 2000

Westbrook’s City Council put Robert Roukey Jr. through a tough evening Monday, debating fine points and grilling him on his past, for about two hours. Finally, the council voted to grant Roukey a victualer’s license for the Millside Variety, 206 Brown St., formerly the Frenchtown Variety, which Roukey and his partner Kathleen Hatt are buying from Jim Martin. Roukey was also granted a tobacco vendor’s license, but his application for a license for four video poker machines was tabled. It will come back up at the council’s next meeting, Sept. 25. Roukey was unfailingly courteous and well-spoken throughout the meeting.

More than 5 percent of Gorham’s 12,500 people now live in a house developed by Susan Duchaine. With Heartwood, her latest development, that number will be up to about 7 percent in five years. Heartwood is a plan for 78 single-family houses to be built on 69 acres on the westerly side of South Street.

Gorham Town Councilor and Bypass Public Advisory Committee member Burleigh Loveitt is surprised how difficult it has been to find a solution to Gorham’s traffic problems that would still preserve the “pedestrian-friendly” village, and he says so in a letter to the committee and to the Maine Department of Transportation. He said Gorham residents have to face the fact that traffic is unavoidable and learn to live with it. He said he also is surprised at how much traffic would still be left on Main Street even with a bypass. He has developed a list of suggestions for the bypass committee to consider, including removing all on-street parking along Main Street and a portion of Route 114 north and south and establishing off-street parking.

Westbrook’s Adult Learning Center had 53 messages on its answering machine for the Canal School when its staff went back to work a couple weeks ago. The new Bell Atlantic phone book lists the number for the learning center as the number of the school. Secretary Linda Lampron said they are changing the answering machine message so that it will tell callers they have not reached Canal School. She expects it will be a problem for the rest of the school year.

Eleven-year-old Scott Sampson, Riley Farm, Gorham, has entered a pair of short-horn steers in the Eastern States Exposition (The Big E), which begins Sept. 13. His entry will be shown in the 2000 Youth Working Steer Show.