May 1981
The front-page photo, taken by Ray Foley, shows two members of Westbrook High School track teams, John Caron and Denise Ragin, smiling handsomely.
In a 4-4 vote, Democrats vs. Republicans, Westbrook’s mayor and aldermen refused to change the name of Wayside Drive to Muskie Drive.
Fighting against abuse of alcohol and drugs by young people, Gorham held a forum and people in Cape Elizabeth plan a series of four meetings.
A split City Council appears to have settled on a flat $900 pay increase for non-union Westbrook city (non-school) employees.
The Post Office won’t confirm rumors that it will close its Cumberland Mills branch office in Westbrook, but it is installing boxes in the main Westbrook office for the present Cumberland Mills box holders.
The South Portland City Council authorized Monday a city/state lease for a new greenbelt and public park area along the Casco Bay shore between Willard Beach and spring Point Marina. Included are the Settlers Cemetery and other parts of the campus of Southern Maine Technical College.
Dahlov Ipcar and Christopher Dennison have been hired to paint pictures on corridor walls in Gorham’s new elementary school on Main Street. She will paint wildlife and farm animals. He will paint Gorham history.
Windham town and school officials will ask the town meeting to buy an IBM computer for $97,794 (purchase $52,500 plus five years’ maintenance and supplies).
Paula Adams and Ted Stone of Windham High School were state representatives in the model state Legislature on the weekend. Marty Phillips and Larry Hansen were lobbyists.
Windham High School’s Student Council and other students have organized a candidates’ night for the town election. Rodney Bernier will be moderator.
Stanley Morrill, 27, of South Windham, driving a tractor-trailer truck with 20 tons of apples, came upon a car stalled in his path on the Broad Turn Road in Scarborough, with two people trying to start it. He took his truck off the road and into a light pole, but no one was hurt, damage was light, and only about two-dozen apples were lost.
Marilyn Farrar and Mary Young, Preble Street, Gorham, spent a week in Southern Ireland. They visited Blarney Castle, Killarney, and Galway Bay, and elsewhere.
Gary and Theresa Pooler, who recently moved to 35 Black Point Road, Scarborough, have a new daughter, Sarah Danielle, born April 18.
Applications will be received until May 15 for the nursery school next fall at Westbrook High School.
May 1991
Steve Kennie, Westbrook, is pictured with fish he caught in the Presumpscot River at Saccarappa Falls. He caught three brown trout, 12- and 11-inch, and a 9-inch brook trout.
Michael Timmons, 48, is resigning after six years as principal of Windham High School. He was Maine’s Principal of the Year in 1985. He has been in Windham schools 28 years. Maine teachers can retire after 20 years. Timmons is critical of the Town Council’s school budget position.
In a ceremony at Southern Maine Technical College, five students in its Law Enforcement Technology Program received awards given in memory of Pierre Harnois, Westbrook’s first permanent police chief. Before him, each new mayor appointed the chief. Harnois was shot and killed and State Police Detective Steve Regina was crippled in 1959 by a man shooting from his cellar in Limerick after shooting his wife.
For Maine Science and Technology Week, the S. D. Warren paper mill in Westbrook set up displays at 30 stations. A photo shows Jim Leighton demonstrating how to make paper.
The state proposes to spend $3 billion over the next two years but expects to take in only $2 billion.
In his popular weekly column about Maine history, William H. Williamson observes that Maine’s deep shell heaps tell us of a time this was a land of peace and plenty.
Dave Sparks was called to take care of a fox pup caught in a live trap on Westbrook’s Cumberland Street.
Stephen Berry Jr., a student in the Westbrook Regional Vocational Center, won first place in the statewide automotive contest of the Vocational and Industrial Clubs of America.
Westbrook schools will close today for the funeral of Harold Hickey, Westbrook’s school superintendent 1971-78, who died April 29.
Wayne Dunton, son of Wayne and Jane Dunton, Deering Road, Gorham, has been awarded the Bronze Star for his bravery under fire as an ammunition driver in the Persian Gulf.
The Jobs for Maine Graduates program at South Portland High School is raising money to send 15 boys and girls and four chaperones to Yarmouth, N.S., on the Scotia Prince on a May weekend.
A spokesman for Hannaford Bros. Co. said he is “pretty pessimistic” now about the chances that Hannaford will build the $15 million shopping center in Gorham it has been considering.
Fantasy Hall, a former dance hall on River Road, Windham, has been bought by the Unity Church. The congregation has met in Portland since 1937 and will continue to have meetings there, on Columbia Road.
Scarborough’s next budget would boost the property tax rate 12.5 percent.
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