July 24, 1991

Gorham town officials are wasting no time in responding to a telephone call fielded by Code Enforcement Officer Dave Grysk the first week in July. The caller asked whether massage parlors are allowed in Gorham. As a result, Town Manager Paul Weston has director Town Planner Jay Grande to request a sample massage parlor ordinance from the town’s legal firm, Jensen Baird Gardner and Henry. The Ordinance Subcommittee of the council will consider the language of a proposed ordinance at a July 30 meeting.

Marjorie Dion, 108 Lyman St., Westbrook, won the first prize in Westbrook Housing Authority’s naming contest. Her “Mill Brook Estates” suggestion will be the official name of the authority’s new apartment house for the elderly on East Bridge Street. The property backs up to a section of Mill Brook where Dion’s husband Camille used to take sons Ron and Bill fishing.

About 50 prospective bidders inspected the Gerald C. Fluett house on Saco Street in Westbrook during two open houses held by the city, which is selling it and an adjoining lot for the benefit of the Walker Memorial Library. The final day of offering bids is Wednesday, July 31. The house is part of Fluett’s bequest to the library.

A private nonprofit agency is interested in developing several units of moderate- income housing in the Little Falls area of Gorham if the local sewer system can be upgraded to accommodate the increased demand for services. The York-Cumberland Housing Development Corp. is exploring the possibility of developing “a number of units” on six acres on Brackett Street owned by John Hawkes, said Lisa Marchant, a development officer with the agency.

The home of Barry and Diane Atwood near Dundee Heights on North Gorham Road in Gorham was moved July 9 around 100 feet back from the road to a new foundation. The foundation will allow for a large addition that is more than double the size of the house, known as the old Carleton House for generations. The move will give the Atwoods a panoramic view of the fields down to the Presumpscot River. The Atwoods have two girls, Stephanie and Katie.

Sixty-thousand dollars is a lot of bills, but that’s what organizers hope to raise at the second Great Maine Duck Race, set for Aug. 4 on the Presumpscot River in Westbrook. About 12,000 rubber ducks have already been “adopted” for $5 apiece for the event, a fundraiser for the Maine Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. As many as 3,000 more may be sold before the race, which begins at 2 p.m. with the launching of the ducks into the river near Bridge Street.

July 25, 2001

Westbrook Fire Chief Gary Littlefield said yesterday that the city is two or three weeks away from announcing the site it prefers to build a new combined fire-police-rescue headquarters. He would not give a hint where, but denied outright a rumor that it would be the present city-owned Warren League baseball field and adjacent land at the end of Locust Street and Stevens Avenue. The city is still dickering with one or two occupants to acquire the property it wants, the chief said.

With specially commissioned stories, the American Journal is noting the centennial of the birth of crooner Rudy Vallee, who was born July 28, 1901, in Island Pond, Vt., and grew up in Westbrook. Writer Michael Fawcett of Los Osnos, Calif., offers this: It all started with a saxophone. Later a band and a radio show. Then Rudy Vallee began to sing. His success was meteoric. He became the first singer to drive a female audience to hysteria with songs like his “The Vagabond Lover.” The next step was into his first film, “The Vagabond Lover” (1929). The film stank. Vallee’s acting was wooden, his singing stilted. Yet he went on to make 35 feature films. Vallee soon became a capable actor, often stepping away from playing himself as a crooner, to portray distinctive characters.

When Pete Profenno walked into his Westbrook restaurant yesterday, the man sitting at the end of the bar looked a little familiar. “I said to myself, ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that was Ace Cottrell,’” he said. Pete and Ace (or Jim) played baseball together in 1955 and ’56 in the Army, in Germany. It turns out, it was Cottrell. Long retired, with time on his hands, he drove 1,700 miles from Fort Smith, Ark., and showed up to see his old buddy.

Gorham Savings Bank has acquired Turner Barker Insurance. Douglas Allen will continue as president and CEO of Turner Barker. Bradford Kirkpatrick has been promoted to executive vice president.

Westbrook’s Planning Board recommended last week a change from Industrial to Contract Zone for the Hannaford property of William Clarke Drive, paving the way for the grocer to win approval from the City Council for a 56,000-square-foot supermarket.

The Big Apple gas station and convenience store at 782 Main St., Westbrook, closed late Sunday and will be demolished and hauled away this week, said Charlie Sheehan, operations manager for the parent C.N. Brown company. Over the next eight to 10 weeks, the store will be rebuilt on the same footprint, with a modern interior layout, including much more glass in the front wall, and public toilets.

On July 4, 1944, a fire swept through this building at 53 Seavey St., occupied by A. Pinette & Son Auto & Furniture Storage Co. The building was originally constructed in the 1860s as the Benjamin A. Marshall Tool and Shovel Co. The building was repaired after the fire and still stands. Over the years it has been occupied by several companies, including Ames Shovel & Tool Co., Cook & Foster Inc., A. Pinette & Son, Cook Box Factory, Portland Stripping Co., Maine Tigue Stripping Co. and Thompson & Anderson Sheet Metal Co. 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