June 1981
The National Labor Relations Board has agreed to postpone from June to perhaps September an election to decide whether employees of St. Joseph’s College, Standish, want to be represented by a union.
Westbrook’s Mayor William B. O’Gara and City Council President Charles Malcolm Roma are not sure they’ll be on the ballot in November’s city elections. Both are uncertain about future jobs. O’Gara left his South Portland teaching job a year ago. Roma sold his Brown Street convenience store a year ago.
Local 1029 of the United Paperworkers International Union at the S. D. Warren paper mill in Westbrook rejected a company offer, by a 3-1 margin, in voting Sunday. The union’s contract expired the next day, but the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service has the two sides talking, holding off a possible strike.
An editorial contributed by Marcia Duchaine, entitled “The Insanity of Terrorism,” cites the shooting of Pope John Paul II and concludes, “A majority that wants peace and goodness, and does not dedicate itself to achieving it, is at the mercy of the few who dedicate themselves to destroying it.”
The Natural Resources Council writes, “On Sept. 23, Maine voted to continue nuclear power generation … We cannot simply assume that we can truck these wastes out of state and forget about them.”
Henry Saunders, former vice chairman of the Westbrook Urban Renewal Authority, and Mayor William B. O’Gara took opposing positions in a debate over allowing a four-story building with apartments for the elderly on the Scates Block site in downtown Westbrook. Saunders was for allowing it, O’Gara against.
Robert O’Gara, the mayor’s brother, said downtown Westbrook needs a supermarket and the high-rise building would make it impossible. The debate brought out that the Urban Renewal plan (protected in its details for 25 years) sets a height limit of two stories.
South Portland’s City Council voted to cut $201,646 from the school budget. The school board then voted to close Skillin Elementary School. The school was named for Dr. Waldo T. Skillin, who died in 1958.
Ralph Kilgore was elected South Portland’s mayor Monday by the City Council, for the third year in a row. He is starting his 11th year on the Council.
Ralph Howard is chairman of the South Portland Board of Education. Newly elected members are Robert Hanson, Linda Boudreau and Sandra Coyne.
Gorham’s School Committee voted 4-1 (Linda Frinsko) to deny a retirement stipend for Peter Bastow, guidance counselor at Shaw Junior High School, who has taught in Gorham less than 25 years and is under age 60. Bastow, 48, has taught 22 years, the last 13 in Gorham. The School Committee acted with advice from lawyer Merton G. Henry.
William P. Crane is new chairman of the Windham Town Council.
David W. Townsend has received a doctorate in oceanography from University of Maine at Orono. He is the son of Mrs. Ferne Townsend, Pine View Terrace, Westbrook.
June 1991
Nationally, “Project Graduation” calls for high school graduation parties with no alcohol or drugs. In Maine, “chem-free” has been fortified by the tragic memory of 1979, when seven teenagers died in traffic accidents in the Norway-South Paris area. A beer party at the fairgrounds had become a tradition there.
Westbrook’s Rescue Unit has voted to equip its ambulances with nitrous oxide for relief of pain. It’s in the dictionary under “laughing gas.”
Eva Tompson quit as Standish assessor clerk after the town stopped her health insurance and certain other benefits. Now the Town Council has voted to restore the benefits for her successor.
In 1940, when Alton Benson took over his father-in-law’s farm, it was one of 54 dairy farms in Gorham. Today it is one of eight.
The people of Maine have lost control of their government and need drastic action if they are to regain it, said Mary Adams, Garland, leader of the Freedom Fighters. She said, “The wires have been cut by the radical bureaucracy. A legislator is no more relevant to the running of government than a school board member is to the running of a school. We’re seeing a systematic attack on the counties that are operated by elected officials. The elected will be replaced by the non-elected if we don’t move to stop it.”
Andrea LaRose is valedictorian and Amy Madden is salutatorian of Scarborough High School’s Class of 1991.
South Portland, which collects real estate taxes Oct. 1 and April 1, is considering changing to three or four payments a year. Interest savings would offset the costs of extra billings.
Gorham’s public works employees are considering unionizing.
The Inlet, a restaurant on Rte. 113 in Standish, which has been closed a year and a half, has been tripled in size and is re-opening.
Mike Little, 10, of 206 Brown St., Westbrook, has sold 500 chocolate bars to benefit the Westbrook Little League. He’s a pitcher. He’s the son of Mike and Sarah Little.
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