April 19, 1995

Tom Howard, Westbrook High School’s 1994 state champion in the 2-mile run, won the Patriots Day road race in Westbrook Monday for the second year. His time for the 2.2-mile course along city streets was 10 minutes 37 seconds. The girls race also was won by a Westbrook runner, Laura Welch, in 13 minutes 28 seconds.

Westbrook officials are moving resolutely ahead with changing many street names and the numbering on some streets. The impetus comes from the 9-1-1 emergency calling system already partially in place in the city but headed into a more comprehensive and sophisticated future. The goal is to eliminate confusion stemming from same-sounding street and other place names and numbering systems that aren’t in the same patterns as they are on most streets.

Saunders Brothers, 170 Forest St., Westbrook, is applying for Planning Board approval on a planned 18,000-square-foot warehouse addition. A public hearing is set for April 25.

A hike on the Appalachian Trail is not sufficient reason for a leave of absence, the Gorham School Committee ruled Wednesday. School nurse Bonnie Hull sought a one-year leave to make the 3,000-mile trek from Georgia to Maine. School policy says unpaid leaves, which guarantee a job on return, can be granted if it’s in the best interests of the school system. Hull will either have to postpone her hike or resign.

Phoebe McNeally of Gorham was named Vertical Racer of the Year in the women’s 19-29 age category in the Vertical Challenge Finals at Loon Mountain Ski Resort in New Hampshire on April 1.

April 20, 2005

Some 20 parents and students told Gorham’s school administration and School Committee last week that they don’t want Dennis Duquette, middle school principal, to leave. The support came in the days after a Cape Elizabeth committee searching for a new principal announced that Duquette was one of two finalists for that town’s middle school position. Duquette told members of the Cape Elizabeth committee Thursday that leaving Gorham wouldn’t be easy because of the relationships he had with many students and parents there.

The Westbrook Catholic Community and Heritage of Maine are the sponsors of A Community Forum on Abstinence Education, April 26 at St. Mary’s Parish Hall in Westbrook. Heritage Keepers’ Character-Based Abstinence Education will be explained.

Mary Snell of North Gorham is among three Maine poets who will read their work April 22 in the new Abromson Community Education Center at the University of Southern Maine. Snell and the other poets are graduate students studying for advanced degrees from the USM Stonecoast writing program.

Current Publishing, which owns the American Journal, has launched an online community, keepmecurrent.com. Stories from each of the company’s soon-to-be six community newspapers will be posted on the site. The company is launching its newest paper, The Sun Chronicle, on April 29, to cover Saco, Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach.

The Boston Marathon attracted several runners from Gorham. They included Robin Carlson, Dick Graves, Floyd Lavery, Kevin Mahoney and Dorothea Rex. Tim Walker, director of student services for the Westbrook School Department, ran the race to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, in honor of Westbrook High School senior Brittany Dahms, who is battling leukemia.