October 1980

Donald and Julie Larrabee and Donald Jr. are back in the family home on the River Road, South Windham, after five years in Iran. An engineer, he has been employed by oil companies, chiefly building electric power lines. They fled the country’s violence shortly before the Shah went into exile. Martial law and a 9 p.m. curfew were in effect, and they were lucky to find seats on a plane to Athens.

Pleasantdale residents have won a 7-0 vote of the City Council to stop the South Portland Housing Authority from any further housing projects in their neighborhood.

An editorial urges defeat of the proposed county charter, in the Nov. 4 referendum.

Scarborough’s Town Council voted 7-0 in favor of every item on its agenda, and adjourned at 7:30 p.m. The second game of the World Series was on TV.

Potatoes were harvested last week on the farm of William H. Jordan, Wells Road, Cape Elizabeth. A mechanized digger delivered the spuds onto a conveyor belt.

Gorham has converted 55 street lights from incandescent to sodium and eliminated 87 others. Savings of $5,904 a year are expected.

A log cabin from the line of them being built and marketed by the L. C. Andrew Co., South Windham, will stand in Monument Square, Portland, during the United Way campaign as a base for broadcasting promotions.

The American Journal’s Margo Greep took a good picture of George Bush and U. S. Senator William Cohen inspecting lobsters on Brown’s Wharf, Portland, as Bush came to town in campaigning to be elected vice president.

Scarborough Town Manager Carl Betterley gave town councilors a plan by Hunter-Ballew Associates showing four sites on the town’s 110 acres at Oak Hill that would be suitable for a new town hall.

Wayne H. Slade, Bangor, who had a dance band in Westbrook in the 1960s, will bring his band to the Memorial Post Legion Hall Oct. 26.

Anne Marie Stoltz, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Stoltz, Warren, N.J., and Arthur Paul Lemay, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roland F. Lemay, 129 Myrtle St., Westbrook, were married Sept. 6 in Warren. Both are honors graduates of the University of Connecticut; she is a hospital pharmacist in Columbus, Ohio; he is director of pharmacy services at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut.

Co-captains of soccer at Westbrook High School are Rich Merriman, Doug Rand and David O’Gara.

October, 1990

Members of five unions of South Portland city employees joined in picketing as police seek better pay. A typical sign says, “We protect your families, what about ours?”

Gorham High School and Shaw Junior High School, Gorham, each has had several bomb threats in recent years. The School Department will continue to evacuate a school after a threat but treats the threat as a Class D crime and will intensify enforcement.

Under a proposal before the South Portland City Council, land on outer Highland Avenue would change from industrial-residential zoning to farming-residential. City Councilor Robert Fickett owns land in three of the four sections proposed for change. An issue right now is whether he should vote on any of the changes.

An editorial urges a “No” vote Nov. 6 in the referendum on whether big stores can be open Sundays, arguing that it would tend to deprive us of our premier family day. In a letter, a retailer’s wife predicts no added hiring if the Yes votes win, predicting that big stores will just spread their staff thinner.

The Rape Crisis Center, Portland, will sponsor a speech on associates’ reactions to a sexual assault.

The Westbrook School Committee has suspended a rule to let students sell sterling silver jewelry and Christmas wrapping paper for a company, Institutional Financial Services.

Kevin McGuirk, 22, Republican, is running against William B. O’Gara for state representative for District 33. O’Gara, a Democrat, has held the seat eight years and was mayor 10 years.

In South Portland, Andre Hamond and J. David Tracy are competing for one school board seat and four are competing for two other seats, Julie Conroy, Auguste Paxson, James O’Neil and Alton Morgan.

In Scarborough, six are competing for two school board seats – Camilla Barrantes (incumbent), Dale Ahlquist, Mark Clark, Anita DiCrecchio, Richard Ellis and Charles Nichols.

It’s David Perkins, Democrat, against incumbent Stephanie Anderson, Republican, for Cumberland County district attorney.

Joe Capozza and Kevin Hight, walking on Austin Street, Westbrook, were hit by a hit-run driver. Graeme Clunie and Patrick Mahoney, both 16, found them, and while Graeme phoned for an ambulance Patrick, on his bicycle, chased the car, and found it and its young woman driver, not far off; after hitting the men, it hit a guard rail and lost a wheel. The city gave the boys commendations, and the men, well-recovered, were there for the ceremony.

In an end-of-season sale, Aubuchon is offering paints at 25 percent off.

Thirty-five volunteers in Cumberland and York Counties are ready to show you how to enrich your yard and garden by composting yard wastes and garbage; call the Extension service.

Applied Energy Services, Arlington, Va., one of three companies negotiating to build a new electric generating station for Central Maine Power Co., was set back when the Bucksport Planning Board rejected its plan for a coal-fired plant there. Still in the running are Cianbro Corporation, with a proposal for a plant in Windham (favored) or Gorham, and Pine State Power, with a proposed gas-fired co-generation plant in Jay.

Don Rich, Windham Republican, and Merle Nelson, Falmouth Democrat, are opponents for the District 27 seat in the State Senate.

Margaret Taber, who holds Gorham’s Boston Post cane as the town’s oldest resident, was honored at a family dinner party. She is 103. Her daughter, Mrs. Russell Dorr, and daughter-in-law, Mrs. Edward Taber Jr., entertained.

The Spring Point Museum, at Southern Maine Technical College, South Portland, will end its regular public season Oct. 21.