Dec. 6, 1995

A proposed winter sludge storage facility off Fort Hill Road on property belonging to Norman Martin III won final approval from the Gorham Planning Board Monday – but not in time to have the site ready for this winter. The facility will be a 24,000-square-foot concrete pad with a 25-foot high metal canopy roof. It will have no walls beyond a 6-foot push wall in the rear.

Two new Westbrook manufacturers are on their way to receiving development loans from the city. The City Council has given initial approval for a $48,750 loan to Infotech Solutions Inc. and $83,000 to Efficient Air Systems Inc. Both are beginning operations in fields that are blossoming with new opportunities. Infotech was formed to develop and market billing software systems for the telecommunications industry. Efficient Air Systems will create and manufacture air handling systems for customers that include  hospitals, clean rooms, labs and museums. The loans, for up to five years, are from federal Community Development Block Grant funds.

Peter Murray, retired Westbrook police officer, was hired by the School Committee to teach cooking skills at the high school. He’s been substituting in the position.

The new Gorham High School addition and auditorium will be formally dedicated in a ceremony Dec. 10. The Student Council is giving guided tours of the building almost daily for the next two weeks.

The annual Christmas dinner for senior citizens of Westbrook will be served Dec. 10 at St. Hyacinth parish hall. All seniors are welcome, at no charge. Last year, more than 400 attended. Members of the high school Key Club and Keyettes will serve the dinner.

Dec. 7, 2005

Maine Medical Center is expected to purchase Westbrook’s old Cumberland Mills police station and use it for medical offices. Paul Gore, one of the building’s owners, said in a letter to Mayor Bruce Chuluda that the hospital wants to build a 16,000-square-foot medical/professional office building employing up to 50 people. He said more than $2 million would be invested. He asked the city to release his company from the deed restrictions placed on the building, which would allow him to sell it.

Overcrowding at the White Rock School in Gorham is not new. There have been portable classrooms there for 18 years. Now, the school is No. 10 on the state’s list of schools most in need of improvement. The Gorham School Committee plans to take the first step to solving the overcrowding when it appoints a project committee – forerunner for a building committee – next week. “The state will determine whether we renovate or build new,” said Jim Hager, school board chairman.

Plans to construct a retirement community and assisted living home off Spring Street with nearly 200 units have been put on hold until at least early next year. Sandy River Health Systems, which operates Spring Brook Nursing Care Center, has asked the city of Westbrook to rezone 53 acres it has an option to buy from the Animal Refuge League. The City Council probably won’t tackle the request until February.

Westbrook skaters will soon have a place to call their own. The city announced it is going ahead with plans to build a park with ramps at Bicentennial Park, with construction to begin this spring. The park would be built through donations and not by taxpayer money. Developer Tim Flannery has donated $20,000 and several local business are donating time and labor.