June 1982

Data General, computer manufacturers, will shut down almost all operations in the U.S. July 6-16. In Westbrook, the company employs 750. Those who don’t have accrued vacation time will, in general, be able to draw pay against future vacation credits. A spokesman said the nine-day halt in production is the first in Data General’s 14-year history. The general slowness of business is responsible, he said. New products have received excellent acceptance show good long-term prospects for Data General, he said. The company honored 170 Westbrook employees last week at a dinner at Valle’s for five-years’ employment Each received a teak tray with his or her name. Last year, another 80 were honored.

Aldermen gave first-reading approval Monday to a combined school-city 1982-’83 Westbrook budget of $16,065,542. It requires property taxes of $9,805,49, and increase of $2 million or 25 percent over the level of spending for the first half of 1982. The tax rate increase would be a whopping $6.61 were it not for a $54 million jump in the value of private property in the city that will share the cost of city government.

The proliferation of new permits for electronic video and pinball machines in Westbrook has prompted a 90-day freeze. The council has concluded that more time is needed to study the issue of the potential impact of the games on the city and to adopt a reasonable and comprehensive response.

Inflation has hit parking tickets in Westbrook. Overtime parking still can cost you a mere $5, but the city council voted on first reading to overhaul the rules and set $10 and $15 fines for several kinds of parking for which there have been $5 fines or none at all. Parking too near a fire hydrant or obstructing snow removal will cost $15 from now on. Ten-dollar tickets will be the norm for double parking, obstructing a crosswalk, illegal use of handicapped space or blocking a driveway.

Aldermen were notified that Westbrook’s Walker Memorial Library now has a new copier, and its previous copy machine is at the fire department. “How did it get down there?” asked Council President Charles M. Roma. Mayor William O’Gara, after a pause: “It was an executive decision, really.”

The Gorham School Committee voted unanimously to amend its “community use of school facilities” policy to prohibit smoking in all school buildings and on all school grounds. The policy permits Gorham community and municipal groups “to use school facilities for worthwhile purposes when such uses will not interfere with the school program or its activities.”

July 1992

A panel of Westbrook and Windham residents has been formed to advise the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee on how up to $10 million in federal money can be best spent to improve Route 302. The study deals with fine-tuning the present highway. A separate study, now dormant, has considered a whole new highway, probably an east-west spur of the Maine Turnpike. PACTS has $40,000 to study the 8 miles between the Portland line and Foster’s Corner. The study will take place over the next three months.

Attorney General Michael Carpenter, in informal remarks to 15 or so members of the Westbrook Democratic City Committee, said Gov. John McKernan demonstrated a lack of leadership in the case of Catherine Hegarty, the Jackman woman who was shot to death by police officers in her home in May. Carpenter defended his own position on the shooting that the police should be fired.

Westbrook High School students, parents, teachers and the principal bombarded the Westbrook School Committee with pleas to find $28,000 to avoid cutting the school’s fourth guidance counselor. Donald Richards and Phyllis Gay missed the meeting, and Chairman Arnold Gaudet said he didn’t want the committee to act without all seven members present. So action, if any is to come, was deferred until July 13, or July 22.

James Knight, Westbrook High School, is one of 14 Maine high school students awarded $2,000-a-year four-year scholarships at the University of Maine for scores in the top 10 percent of a math-science-engineering examination. He is entering his senior of high school and to hold the scholarship, he must enter the university and keep a 3.0 average grade.

From the police log: A woman at 42 Myrtle St., Westbrook, reported at 11:40 p.m. that the upstairs tenant couldn’t get in because of seven raccoons on the porch. Police “warned the seven of criminal trespass.” Parents said their son was missing. South Portland police had him in custody. Dave Sparks, animal control officer, used a rope to tie a dog to a basketball pole at the dog’s home on Halidon Road and left a warning that he was running at large.

The Gorham Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the site plan review presented by Maine Marble Manufacturing Inc. to manufacture simulated “marble” sink vanity tops at the Colcord Building on the New Portland Road.