Over the opposition of a roomful of residents, Westbrook’s City Council voted 4-2 Monday (Wescott, Juniewicz and Lefebvre absent) on first reading to make Turner Street permanently dead end. Final action is due Sept. 21, with another big citizen turnout expected. Opponents focused their criticisms on extra traffic created on Bernadette Street and Huntress Avenue, particularly past Saccarappa School. Aldermen assured them that they will deal with part of this by posting new stop signs at the school.

City Clerk William L. Clark was back at his desk for Wednesday’s City Council meeting after having spent most of last week in Maine Medical Center. He joked about the nurse who checked him during one of his first nights in the hospital. “She seemed kind of concerned. I found out later that the signals said I was either dead or unplugged.”

Westbrook voters will likely see both the $9 million high school addition plan rejected in May, plus a $6.4 version much like it but minus the big new gymnasium, on the ballot in November if the council and mayor schedule such a vote. A public hearing on the proposal may be held at a meeting of the municipal officers scheduled for Monday, or it may come the next Monday, Sept. 28. It may be preceded by a special meeting of the School Committee to approve the Building Committee’s revised plan.

Ronald S. Sneider and his wife Sheila, of Brookwest Drive, Westbrook, hit the Tri-State Megabucks jackpot, winning $3.5 million. The Sneiders will receive 20 annual payments of $130,500 after taxes. The first check was sitting largely unspent in their checking account. Judy Quimby, proprietor of Thayer’s Store, 463 River Road, South Windham, sold the winning Megabucks ticket. She’s now $15,000 richer.

Otto Davis, Ossipee Trail, Gorham, celebrated his 95th birthday Aug. 31 by climbing Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire with 25 members of his family. In the 1920s he worked on Kearsarge as a fire warden. He has made it a habit of climbing the mountain on each birthday. This is the 72nd anniversary of his first birthday climb.

Brian Tucker, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Tucker, Gray Road, Gorham, has returned to UM-Farmington, where he is majoring in secondary education. Nancy Frye, daughter of Mrs. Annie Frye, Crestwood Drive, Gorham, has returned to Chowan College, Murfreesboro, N.C., where she is a senior majoring in journalist.

Westbrook brother and sister Keegan and Adora Burke are at the top of the heap among competitive amateur skiers nationally in their age groups. Keegan, who turned 5 on July 14, is listed in the current issue of Ski magazine as the top NASTAR skier in the United States in his age group, boys up to age 4, in 1987. Adora, who turned 3 on June 6, was 10th nationally in the 1-4 age group, and the youngest skier ever in the top 10. “We skipped walking,” their father Kelvin says. “The doctor slapped them with a ski when they were born.”

Sept. 17, 1997

Joel Rogers, chief executive officer of Westbrook Community Hospital for the past eight years, has left the hospital. His duties are being handled by Charlene Wallace as acting chief executive officer. Wallace is chief operating officer for clinical services and the medical staff. Bruce Chuluda continues as chief operating officer for fiscal and supporting services. No formal announcement had been received yesterday, but Chuluda confirmed the changes. Wallace and Rogers could not be reached.

Jeffrey J. Manter, 27, won’t start work until Sept. 22 as Westbrook’s new planner and economic development specialist, but he was on hand this week as the Downtown Task Force met to think some more about how to reinvigorate the once-busy retail area at the city center. Manter’s appointment to the job was announced last week by Mayor Kenneth Lefebvre. Manter will be paid at the rate of $36,000 a year for six months, then at the rate of $38,000. He also is in line to take the place of James Fisk, who had been under contract as Westbrook’s planner, as the administrative person of the Westbrook Economic Improvement Corp. Manter comes to his Westbrook job from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, where he has been a project development specialist since May 1994.

Gorham schools started the year with 98 more students than a year ago. Enrollment Sept. 5 was 2,594. Enrollment Sept. 27, 1996, was 2,496. The Village School is up 39, to 657; the high school is up 35, to 686; and White Rock School is up 23, to 187. Little Falls School is up 5, to 206, while Shaw Middle School is down 3, to 382. Narragansett School is down one, to 476.

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Leo and Donna Girard, 159 West Pleasant St., Westbrook, were surprised Sept. 5 with a garage warming celebrating the completion of the Girards’ new garage. Nita and Joe Gervais, Westbrook, and Shirley Jones and Ronald Broadhurst Sr., Windham, jointed them for pizza, cake and a lot of reminiscing.

In 1864, John J. Knowlton, his brother Daniel and brother-in-law Maurice Hodgkins established a small machine shop at Saccarappa, which is now Westbrook. The business prospered and about 1873, a two-story brick building was constructed on the banks of the Presumpscot River (on present day Dana Street). A water wheel was used to provide power. In 1888, Knowlton bought out his partners and along with his son, John D. Knowlton, ran the business until his death in 1912 at the age of 86. The Knowlton family, along with longtime superintendent Theodore R. Hanna, continued to run the business up into the 1970s, when Frank Boyden acquired the company. John Rogen later purchased the business and continued to run it out of the old building on Dana Street.  On Dec. 31, 1981, a spectacular fire destroyed the Dana Street building. The business relocated to Sanford Drive in the Gorham Industrial Park, where it still operates. The burned-out shell of the old building is still standing on Dana Street. 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.