June 21, 1989

Patricia A. Grant became the 14th child of Pauline and Allin H. Grant on Sunday to graduate from Westbrook High School. Just as remarkable: the parents and all 13 of the Grants’ other WHS graduates were on hand for the ceremonies. Patricia is the last. “Next will be some grandchildren,” said Allin Grant. Nine of the Grant children are married and there are now 11 grandchildren.

School lunches will cost $1, instead of 90 cents, for Westbrook students next year, and $2, instead of $1.50, for adults, the School Committee voted recently. It also voted $50,000 to subsidize the school lunch program for the 1989-90 school year. The program had for self-supporting for several years but faces rising labor and food costs.

Westbrook Together Days, canceled June 10 due to rain, has been rescheduled for Sept. 16, with a rain date of Sept. 23. Everything will be held – the parade, the day in the park and a full schedule of entertainment.

The first year of a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program – DARE – in Westbrook culminated June 9 at the junior high school with a special assembly in the gym. The 11-week program taught by Westbrook Officer Shawn McDermott is designed to teach fifth- and sixth-graders about the dangers of drugs and give them the tools to resist what Police Chief Ron Allanach called “the seduction of narcotics.”

For a cost of $2,500, the Maine Municipal Association will conduct a search for a new Gorham town manager to replace Don Gerrish, who was selected June 7 to become the Brunswick town manager. The proposal calls for the MMA’s director of personnel service and labor relations to meet with the Town Council to outline recruitment activities. The director will be responsible for background checks on each candidate and take part in the interview process. The fee covers five meetings. No decision on an interim manager has been reached, according to Councilor Dean Evans.

Attitude and balance. That’s what makes the Gorham High School baseball team the Western Maine Class B champions, according to coach Kirk Butterfield. “I’ve had stronger clubs, but this team is gutsy and knows how to come from behind,” he said. Unfortunately, that come-from-behind strategy could not prevail against the Rockland team in the championship game at Saint Joseph’s College Saturday. The final score was 3-1 Rockland.

A familiar face to every young person who has passed through the halls of Shaw Junior High School in Gorham for the past 11 years, Ethel Wright, has retired from her home economics teaching position. Her career as a teacher spans 27 years, including years at Edward Little, Morse and Camden. She joins her husband Larry in his retirement earlier this year.

June 23, 1999

June 23 is a red-letter day that will mark the start of a new era in Westbrook. The pulp mill at the Sappi paper mill shuts down today, and for the first time since the S.D. Warren paper mill replaced the soda papermaking process with the kraft process in the early 1950s, the city will be relatively free of the odors associated with digesting and bleaching wood chips into clean white pulp. It will actually take a week before the last sulfur odors are gone, because the recovery boiler will need to burn that much longer to burn off the black liquor that is still in it. There will be a reduction in the number of chip trucks that roll through the city because only chips for fuel for the biomass electricity generating boiler will be needed, not chips for paper pulp.

The Mane Department of Transportation will spend between $1 million and $1.2 million next year to build a gravel walking trail along about two miles of the Mountain Division railroad line between Route 202 in South Windham and Route 237 in White Rock, Gorham. It will be built as far away from the tracks as possible so that the railroad can be revived, first for use by freight trains and eventually for a Portland to North Conway, N.H., tourist train service that might makes stops in Westbrook, Little Falls, Sebago Lake, Hiram and Fryeburg. A public hearing on the South Windham-Gorham walking trail will be held June 29 at the Windham-Gorham Rod and Gun Club in Gorham.

To seek input on plans for the new Exit 7B at Larrabee Road in Westbrook, the Maine Turnpike Authority will hold an informational meeting June 23 in Verrillo’s Restaurant, 155 Riverside St., Portland. Originally referred to as Exit 8A, the new interchange will be located between the new Jetport interchange, 7A, and Exit 8 in Portland.

Gorham schools are saying no to parents who request specific teachers for their children. Now, they will stick with the teachers they are assigned, according to Superintendent Irene Bender. “Public schools are not in a position for every parent to choose every teacher,” she said. Overcrowding in some classrooms was cited as a reason for the change, and the fact that sometimes parental preferences have been based on unfounded allegations, according to Bender.

Crews working for the Rowe Ford organization were at the former Best Buffet building at 152 Main St., Westbrook, Monday starting on renovating the former dining room to office space. Camp Real Estate Associates Limited Partnership, owned by the family that owns the various Rowe dealerships, bought the building June 15 from the Ta-Tung Corp. and is wasting no time putting it to use. Taylor Smith-Petersen said he plans to move the Westbrook Rowe Special Credit operations and auto displays there from the 91 Main St. location. Also moving in will be Public Auto Finance.

“Quick, convenient and very friendly service,” is how Marsha Densmore describes the Drive Thru Express, out back at 820 Main St., Westbrook, with drive-up and walk-up windows. It’s been open since the end of May. She sells Green Mountain coffee, iced capuccino, soda, milk, juice, candy, cookies, Tony’s Donuts, pastries, sub sandwiches, jumbo hot dogs and Edy’s ice cream.

Rebecca D. Plante has been named English and drama teacher at Westbrook High School, succeeding the retiring Robert Fish. She was chosen from a field of 16 applicants. Also at the school, Marianne Smith has been hired as a guidance counselor and Colleen Kelly as a substance abuse counselor.

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50 Years Ago

The Westbrook American reported on June 17, 1964, that 70 people attended the Gorham High School alumni banquet and Calvin Hamblen was elected its new president.

Guy Dixon of Groveville, president of Dixon Brothers Oil Co. in Gorham, attended an oil dealers convention in Rockland.

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For many years McLellan’s Store occupied the building at 851-855. Main Street.  In the 1930s,  851 Main St. was occupied by the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A & P Store), 853 was occupied by McLellan’s and 855 Main St. was occupied by the F. W Woolworth Co. McLellan’s expanded into 851 and 855 Main Street when the A & P store moved to a new building on the opposite side of Main Street and Woolworth’s closed its Westbrook store. The McLellan chain went out of business in the late 1990s and the building was renovated and divided. Occupants now include The Dancing Elephant restaurant and Full Court Press. To see more historical photos and artifacts, visit the Westbrook Historical Society at the Fred C. Wescott Building, 426 Bridge St. Inquiries can be emailed to westhistorical@myfairpoint.net. The website is www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org.