Sept. 2, 1992

The proposed expansion of Gorham High School has won unanimous votes of support from both the School Committee and the Town Council, Superintendent Timothy McCormack pointed out Monday during a council public hearing on two bond questions – one for $9.7 million to pay for a 57,100-square-foot expansion and one for $1.96 million to pay for a new track, fields, tennis courts, cable TV studio and new heating system. The vote is Sept. 15. “They recognize, as private citizens should I think, that this is a wonderful opportunity for the citizens to get a quality educational facility that will hold this community in good stead for the next 30 years, and at a bargain price,” McCormack said.

Cheryl Dobson, 382 County Road in Gorham, along with six members of her church, the Christian Outreach Association, left July 28 for a 15-day trip to Nepal to take medical supplies and equipment to four hospitals in the area. They were fortunate that the Gorham Village Travel Agency had changed their flight plans, booking them through Pakistan, or they would have been on the Thai Airlines plane that crashed on landing at Nepal. That crash, the day after the Gorham group arrived, killed everyone aboard.

After a debate on the possible costs, the Westbrook City Council gave final approval last week for a lighted, year-round skating rink – ice skaters in season, roller-blade skaters at other times – on Lincoln Street. Construction materials costs are estimated at $37,700, with most of the labor to be done by city crews. The Cornelia Warren Foundation is to provide $35,000. The agreement with the foundation calls on the city to “maintain, schedule and staff the facility, insuring its long life and multi-generational use.”

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The insurance company will pay for a new gazebo to replace the one in downtown Westbrook destroyed this summer by vandals. The cost to the city will be $1,000, the amount of the insurance’s deductible. A circular wooded structure with seldom-used bench seats, it stood at the end of a flower-bordered path as an ornament on the city’s still-unused urban-renewal-cleared land between Show Me Video and the John Hay Funeral Home. The youths accused of ripping it apart have been ordered to court.

John and Rita Seger and John Jr., 17, of 622 Gray Road in Gorham, are back from a month-long vacation trip through 30 states and Canada. Highlights were a visit to Meteor Crater, Arizona, and a day at the Grand Canyon.

Two Westbrook couples have been honored for achieving 50-year wedding anniversaries. Mr. and Mrs. W. Stanley Keene (Lillian Jensen), 42 Bernadette St., were honored June 13 at a celebration held at son David’s and daughter-in-law Barbara’s home on Shady Run Lane in Gorham. They were married June 13, 1942, in the Trinity Lutheran Church, Westbrook. Philip W. and Blanche (Rousseau) Demers, 105 Puritan Drive, observed their 50th on Aug. 8 in St. Edmund’s Roman Catholic Church and parish hall, Bridgton Road, Westbrook. A special Mass at 4 p.m. started the celebration, followed by a reception and buffet. They were married Aug. 8, 1942, in St. Hyacinth Church, Westbrook.

Sept. 4, 2002

It’s one thing for a genealogist to trace an ancestor’s routes. It’s another thing entirely to pay their 284-year-old medical bills, as Westbrook resident Phil Crook did recently for one of his family’s first American settlers. In the summer of 1718, an 18-year-old Irish immigrant named Thomas Crook got off a ship in the port of Casco Bay, having come down with a very high fever during the trip. After a circuitous route, he was treated by a doctor in Salem, Massachusetts. Crook subsequently became a sea captain on Nantucket Island. The doctor sent a bill of 9 pounds, 4 shillings to immigration officials in Boston. Phil Crook, who came across the lingering debt while tracing Thomas Crook’s history, figured the amount owned was roughly $180. He sent a check to the state of Massachusetts with a note explaining how he came to set the debt’s value. A few weeks later, the check was cashed, and he has not heard a word from any Massachusetts official.

The streets around the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus were crowded with students, their belongings and family members Sunday, move-in day for the new academic year. University officials say that 3,653 students applied as freshmen for this year, representing a 15 percent increase over last year. The actual freshman enrollment, which will be tallied in October, is expected to come in a little over 1,100, also a 15 percent jump.

When it comes to fundraising for the Maine Muscular Dystrophy Association, a group of Westbrook firefighters discovered a way to get everybody’s attention – they stood in the middle of the road. Ten volunteers from the Valentine House Co. raised $8,100 in a boot drive over the past two weekends, roughly twice the company’s previous best. The volunteers stood in the road island at Main Street and Larrabee Road, soliciting thousands of drivers as they passed at the lights.

A nearly perfect site, great weather and an experienced contractor have meant that progress at Gorham’s new middle school is a little ahead of schedule, putting it on target for an expected September 2003 opening. With the recent news that Gorham did not receive state construction funding for renovations to its crowded elementary schools, the news that things are ahead of schedule at the middle school construction project was welcomed.

The final concert of the season at Westbrook’s Riverbank Park featured the Tony Boffa Band. A perennial favorite with a large following, the band kept their tradition going with an exceptionally large crowd of spectators and dancers enjoying every note. American Legion Post 62 provided food, a fundraiser for the post, and ran out quickly. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky.

The Westbrook Garage & Machine Company was located at 609 Main St. at the corner of Stevens Avenue. Raymond Rowe was the owner of the business, which was also a Ford dealership. Charles Champlain was the mechanic and George Sullivan was the salesman. Rowe also had the ALA franchise, which was an emergency road service similar to today’s AAA. TYDOL gasoline was sold from pumps curbside in front of the building. The business’ name was later changed to Rowe Motors and moved to a larger location at 91 Main St., where it still operates. E.G. Oleson Saw Technology moved into the building and occupied it for many years before moving to Eisenhower Drive. Steve Corey purchased the building, which now houses Mr. Bagel in the front and Corey Electric in the rear. 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