Four communities and state highway officials are collaborating on a $1 million study to improve transportation between South Portland and Gorham. “It’s as bad as any place in the state,” Gorham Town Councilor Burleigh Loveitt said of the congestion on roads in the region. The committee will consider solutions to alleviate the problems, including road […]

The potential liability for the city is one reason councilors and the mayor decided Monday not to prohibit engine brakes from being used on Westbrook streets. Several councilors and the city administrator acknowledged at a meeting of the Growth and Traffic Committee Monday they have received complaints about the noise made by engine brakes, which […]

Westbrook resident Al Hawkes speaks to the crowd after being being presented with a Boston Bluegrass Union Heritage Award at the annual Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham, Mass., earlier this month. “It was a terrific show and a huge turnout,” Hawkes said this week. “It was a great honor for me to be presented […]

Tim Mercer is joining the American Journal as its new advertising sales representative for Westbrook, Gorham and Standish. Mercer, 38, has worked for Current Publishing since July 2008 as the advertising representative for the Weekly Observer, covering the Sanford/Springvale area. Before joining Current Publishing, he spent time as the sales director at Thomson Financial in […]

The Brown Street neighborhood will benefit most from federal money designated for fixing up neighborhoods hurt by foreclosures. The city is receiving just under $1 million through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program for the purpose of buying, rehabbing, and reselling foreclosed or abandoned properties. Keith Luke, director of economic and […]

Kostas Kourinos has never shied away from challenges. He went to work in construction at 12, and then served at sea as a crew member on a tanker to help support his widowed mother and six siblings. Drafted in the Greek Army at 20, he was earning $1 a month – “enough to buy razor […]

Feb. 29, 1984 Mayor Philip Spiller recommended to the City Council two new high-level Westbrook city jobs – police captain, at $19,500 starting pay, and fleet manager in the Public Works Department, pay unspecified. The fleet manager request provoked a 2 1/2-hour debate in the council’s Finance Committee. William O’Gara, ex-mayor, was a vocal participant. […]

Long gone are the days when ethnic food options were limited to Chinese and Mexican. With a Japanese restaurant in every neighborhood of Portland and whole shelves at Hannaford dedicated to noodle bowls, sushi and pad thai have become almost as American as apple pie. As Maine has become more and more of a melting […]

Old tune, Aretha-style We read in the Feb. 6 Boston Globe that Aretha Franklin sang “America” (“My Country ’tis of Thee”) at President Obama’s Inauguration Jan. 20. She will record it again, as she doesn’t feel that she did her best, because of the cold weather that day. She wants her fans to have the […]

Old tune, Aretha-style We read in the Feb. 6 Boston Globe that Aretha Franklin sang “America” (“My Country ’tis of Thee”) at President Obama’s Inauguration Jan. 20. She will record it again, as she doesn’t feel that she did her best, because of the cold weather that day. She wants her fans to have the […]