Nov. 3, 1982

Daniel Palmieri has retired, Westbrook Mayor William B. O’Gara

announced at a city council meeting. A week earlier, aldermen

had directed the mayor to stop paying Palmieri from funds held to repave street openings. “I’m sad to announce to you that Dan Palmieri, the subject of some concern, has decided to make his retirement official as of Oct. 29,” the mayor announced. “I am very, very sorry to lose his expertise.” Palmieri was getting $394 a week to be in charge of making sure that holes dug in Westbrook streets by utility companies, or others, were properly repaved.

After 150 years the John Maxwell barn at 214 Main St. was taken down by John Libby, who believes it was built between 1820 and 1840, based on the wood used in framing it. He said it was mostly pine and “clear, or close to it, consistent with what they were using in barns during those years.” The barn was unusually big, 56-by-120 feet overall. The main section, 38-by-64 feet, will be re-erected in Connecticut. A

spokesman at Shaw’s supermarkets, which sold the barn to Libby’s company, said Shaw’s held out against pressure from the city of Westbrook to demolish the barn or burn it down, and is pleased that it will be saved.

Local men selected for inclusion in the 1982 edition of “Outstanding Young Men of America” are Erland A. Cutter, 514 East Bridge St. and William J. Michaud, 527 Duck Pond Road, Westbrook; and Perry B. Fielding, 15 First St., Scarborough. The Outstanding Young Men program, which is endorsed by the United States Jaycees, recognizes the civic and professional contributions of men between the ages of 21 and 36.

From the police log: A 25-year-old South Portland man had just put his fist through the window of her front door, a Lamb Street Westbrook woman reported a 2:24 a.m. She didn’t know what his injuries might be. At 2:30, a patrolman reported that the man was on Larrabee Road with a severely

cut wrist. The Rescue Unit took him to the Osteopathic Hospital. A girl reported a bald man wearing a maroon dress and tights “flashing” on Brown Street near Bridge Street at 8 p.m.

Charles Thomas wants to build a house for himself and wife Bettyanne on 45 acres at the end of Austin Street, Westbrook. The land has been in his family for generations. Westbrook Code Enforcement Officer Thomas Wakefield said he couldn’t start until he had an approved water supply. Thomas started anyway after he was advised that there is no such rule in Westbrook ordinances and that adjoining cities and towns

and the state do not have any such rule. Wakefield responded with the threat of fines up to $100 a day.

Nov. 4, 1992

Scott Paper Co. has told its workers it intends to invest $35

million in its S.D. Warren paper mill in Westbrook, but its actions show something different, its biggest union said. Mayor Fred Wescott, asked about the $35 million, said it was news to him. He heard that Scott will be demolishing some Warren buildings, he said. A Scott spokesman refused to comment on the $35 million.

Aldermen refused to let Peter Foye dump the wood that remains from the arson-fire-ruined Dana Warp-C.E. Noyes building at Westbrook’s Rocky Hill landfill without paying the dumping fees. The fees are expected to run as high as $9,000. Foye offered to give the city the services of R.J. Grondin & Sons for bulldozing work at the landfill instead, a value estimated at $3,000. The sldermen were unimpressed.

When Jerry Larrivee Jr. and Charles Whitehouse were captured six days after escaping from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, they were in clothes they stole from Sgt. Wayne Coffin of the Gorham Police Department. No one was more surprised at seeing the fugitives than the officer, who was called to assist with the apprehension. “You couldn’t

print what I was thinking at first,” he said. “And it went down hill from there. We were nose to nose there for a while. Nobody likes to be a victim.” To add insult to injury, Coffin also discovered that Larrivee and Whitehouse possessed a wallet taken from his home. And after the place was searched, police found that other items were lifted, including money, cigarettes, lighters, a screwdriver, flashlight, knife and a watch. “It’s pretty funny a couple of days later,” he said. “If this were sent to Paul Harvey, I’m not sure even he would believe it.”

In a rare 4-3 vote, the Westbrook School Committee has approved spending $741.41 to light the practice field above the football field at Westbrook High School. The action followed a citizen complaint that the high school’s marching band has been allowed to practice on the lighted football field but the football team can’t.

Adolph H. Brule, 41, of 120 Brackett St., Westbrook, was working in his garage when his next-door neighbor lost control of her car and it slammed through the back wall, pinning him between his car and hers and knocking the garage wall down. The ambulance crew thought his leg was broken, but it was only badly bruised, as it turned out.

The class of 1992 will be the first Gorham High school graduates to receive an alumni survey designed to help administrators keep track of what happens to students once high school doors close behind them. “We think this will provide enormously valuable data,” said Principal Gunnar Hasgstrom, who, along with guidance counselor Barbara Roth,

presented the survey concept to the Gorham School Committee last week. “Graduates, particularly as they grow older, will be able to tell us what things we do well and where we can do better,” he said.