April 1982

When renovations are completed, all business or emergency phone calls made to the Gorham Public Safety office will be tape recorded because many times, according to Chief Edmund Hagan, people who call in emergencies are excited and consequently fail to leave complete addresses, names or other important facts.

Bailey’s Market got the registration number of a car whose driver bought gas with a $5 roll of dimes that turned out to be a dime on each end of a roll of pennies. The car was listed to a Gorham woman.

Unimpeded by any vocal opposition, the Gorham Town Council voted unanimously to adopt amendments to the streets and sidewalks public safety ordinance which will reduce parking in the center of town. The council had previously voted 6-1 to postpone action on this item until the snows melted and they could see the streets again. Unlike the February council meeting and numerous other meetings when the issue of village square parking has been addressed, last week no local residents publicly objected to the proposal.

In the April 6 snowstorm Westbrook didn’t fare so well. Sgt. Farr’s cruiser got stuck on the Spring Street hill, blocking traffic; Boulanger’s towed it free. There were three accidents in less than four hours at Sroudwater Street and Woodlawn Avenue. Various other accidents also were reported. Boulanger’s towed a car that got stuck in front of Wimpey’s Variety, Cumberland Mills. A tree fell on Rocheser Street. While Patrolman Sanphy was directing traffic around a broken-down car on Stroudwater Street near Elwell’s, a car ran into his cruiser. Ten cars had to be towed out of the way of plow trucks . On Mitchell Street, an electric power cable sagged almost to the paving. A city snowplow hit a fire hydrant on Cole Street. Another snowplow set off an alarm at a Larrabee Road business three times. And a city plow hit a power pole in front of the police station, damaging a transformer.

Aldermen came close to approving a two-hour parking area in Cumberland Mills. The motion died in a 3-3 vote in the Westbrook City Council’s Public Safety Committee. It will be revived if Alderman Beverly Morin, who was home with the flu, favors it. Five, two-hour spaces would be marked on the north side of Main Street. Other spaces in Cumberland Mills would be 30-minute parking.

Reporting its findings to the council, the Gorham Cemetery Review Committee said five cemeteries are full or nearly full, and the town should immediately consider expanding the South, West and North Gorham and Eastern cemeteries. The Cemetery Review Committee was charged with taking an inventory of available lots in major cemeteries, projecting their remaining life and making recommendations concerning possible expansions.

April 1992

An innovative answer to Gorham’s traffic problems is the goal of a 12-member Comprehensive Plan Committee seeking the preservation of Gorham’s open space and agricultural resources while at the same time controlling traffic and development pressures. To resolve the traffic issue, the plan proposes to develop a direct arterial route across Gorham land area, uninterrupted by traffic signals. The “sprawl and strip development” that has begun to eat away at Gorham’s open spaces can be countered by “economizing the land,” said Town Planner Jay Grande.

The American Journal moved its offices about a quarter of a mile. You’ll find the AJ now, and for a long time to come (we trust) at 4 Dana St., Westbrook. The building is the former home of Knowlton Machine Co., which moved to a new plant in Gorham in 1990. Dana is the short city street that leads to “Yudy’s Island,” the island in the Presumpscot River last used for a warehouse for Yudy’s Tires. Ours is the only business on the street. Dana Street leaves Main Street across from Marty’s Variety.

John Marcellino Jr., 46, a 21-year employee of the city of Westbrook, was appointed by Mayor Fred Wescott as the city’s director of parks and cemeteries, at $25,000 a year. The city council confirmed the appointment, 7-0. He succeeds Michael Nash, who held the job for five months and resigned to go to work for the University of Maine.

Lyle Cramer, Westbrook candidate for Cumberland County Commissioner in District 2, said in a press release that he believes the county should leave it to municipalities to decide how much support they should give to human services programs. The county is spending $332,000 on such programs this year, he said.

Tom Curran, president of the Westbrook Education Association teachers’ union, has made it clear that he doesn’t like the idea of a longer school day and school year. He told the school committee that he doesn’t think a longer day and year should be considered at this time. He made his views known at a meeting in which the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee reported that it had considered recommending a longer day and year.

A decision to discontinue a school bus route to a Route 25 day-care operator has resulted in a lawsuit against the town of Gorham and the Gorham School Committee. The suit brought by the Cradles and Crayons day-care center and a parent, Margaret Faulkner, was filed in Cumberland County Superior Court. It claims that the decision to discontinue school bus service from White Rock School to the day care has adversely affected both Faulkner and the day care. The suit asks that an injunction be granted requiring that the bus service be maintained at Cradles and Crayons, and”to grant such other relief” as the court deems necessary.