Oct. 21, 1992

A varsity ice hockey program proposed for Gorham High School this winter could be funded from gambling. The proposal was made last week by the Gorham Ice Hockey Association, which promised to pay the full cost through bingo receipts. Following the recommendation of Superintendent Timothy McCormack, the Gorham School Committee established a task force to study the offer. The association was formed in 1987 and for the past two years has supported teams at the middle school level, according to member J. Michael Roods. The association submitted a budget proposal of $15,125 for the high school hockey program.

New rubbish rules went before the Westbrook City Council Monday that would ban household wastes at the city dump, ban business use of the dump, tighten rules on apartment house rubbish and bar leaves and grass from regular rubbish. Fees would go up for big truck tires and fluorocarbon appliances. The changes will be back before the council Nov. 2 for final action.

A crumbling shell is all that remains of the building at 59 Dana Court in Westbrook, which burned early Sunday. It was built around the 1870s as a cotton warehouse for the Dana Warp Mills. The fire had already eaten deep into its heavy timber decks and frame when it was discovered around 3 a.m. A firefighter early on the scene said flames were coming out of every window on every floor, the length of the building. As the inferno ate the frame away and the walls collapsed, fire crews wetted down nearby houses, keeping flames from spreading, and evacuated the residents.

The newly formed Boy Scout Troop 83 meets in the Highland Lake Congregational Church, Bridgton Road, Westbrook, on Tuesdays. More boys are welcome. Members are Richard Bert, Gorham; Aaron Cort, Aaron Fontes, Brian Levesque, Russell Purinton and Craig Smith, Windham; and Zack Oliver, Portland.

Regional Waste Systems is refusing to burn leaves in its trash-to-energy plant this year. That’s fine by Nelson Wagner. He’ll take as many of them as he can get for his Gorham farm. Wagner sees leaves as nature’s bounty, not to be wasted on anybody’s fires. He is inviting people to drop off leaves at his farm, 222 Libby Ave. “We grind them up and put them back into the soil. Chopped, they don’t blow around. Then in the spring we plow them under,” he said.

Oct. 23, 2002

Dancers from the Centre of Movement in Gorham completed a 10-plus-mile tap dance in a fundraiser for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center. They tapped from Portland’s Deering Oaks Park along Brighton Avenue, through Westbrook and back to the dance studio in just less than six hours. The team, 29 tappers ranging in age from 10 to 61, shattered the previous world record for tap dancing. Several years ago, the Gorham dancers tapped a world-record 6.2 miles for the Pine Tree Society for Crippled Children. But in 1994, a San Francisco team danced 9.6 miles. Sunday, while observers from the Guinness Book of Records watched, the tap team took back the title, with 10.4 miles.

From the Westbrook Police Log: A Madison Street man reported what he thought was a seal in his driveway. Police went to the house and found a fox with its head in a potato chip bag. The fox ran away after the bag was removed from its head.

As a mob of children clattered past Karen Maxell’s classroom, a boy stopped in her doorway. “Congratulations Mrs. Maxell,” he said. After 21 years of teaching art to Westbrook students, Maxell was getting some long overdue recognition last week. The principal of the Saccarappa School, Sharon Orlando, had announced the day before that Maxell had been named Maine Art Educator of the Year. “It feels awesome,” Maxell said. “It’s nice to have what I’ve dedicated my life to recognized and validated.” Maxell said she has known since age 5 she wanted to teach art. She thinks she may have gotten the idea to be an art teacher from her uncle, who taught art in Westbrook for years before her.

Enid McNeally of Gorham reported last week that her daughter, Phoebe McNeally, has moved back from Utah. She returned in the summer so as to be settled in time for the start of the school year. She is teaching physics and chemistry at Falmouth High School. Enid McNeally and Robert McNeally, Phoebe’s father, live on Dunlap Road.

Two dogs in Gorham are under observation and a third, a puppy, has been euthanized following two separate incidents with rabid animals. Officials from the disease control division of the Maine Department of Human Services notified Gorham police on Oct. 10 that a raccoon shot after fighting with two dogs on Spiller Road, and a skunk that tangled with a dog on Paige Drive, both on Oct. 9, had tested positive for rabies. One of the two dogs that came into contact with the raccoon was the puppy, which had not been vaccinated. The second dog received a booster shot and is being observed, as is the dog that came in contact with the skunk.

In 1844, Dana Brigham and Henry Walker built this large brick building on Main Street between Fitch and Carpenter streets. It came to be known as the Brigham Block. The first floor was commercial and the upper floors were divided into apartments. Between 1873 and 1879, when St. Hyacinth Church opened on Brown Street, members of parish used the building’s large attic to hold religious services. The Men’s Shop was the building’s last tenant before it burned down in 1978. 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.