July 1982
Mayor William B. O’Gara unveiled a plan last week for a joint S.D. Warren-city solid waste landfill dump between Stroudwater and Spring streets, near the Stroudwater River. He said advantages to the city would be more volume, which would mean lower costs per ton. Thomas Jewell, a lawyer for neighbors who oppose the dump, suggested that there is a further reason – that when the dump filled up, the city could use eminent domain to take lands of the neighbors to expand it. Warren would use it for the clays, fiber and other sludge it now trucks to a site next to the Wayside Systems property in Scarborough off Running Hill Road.
Westbrook firemen helped Shawn Kenney, 10, and Mary Savage, 12, to safety after they climbed up under the Bridge Street Bridge looking for pigeon eggs among the girders. Patrolman Harold Stultz said the kids were terrified of falling into the Presumpscot River when they looked back at where they had come. He stood on a 6-inch-wide ledge of the abutment with his back to the water and let them clamber down between him and the abutment, then passed them to others. The river was so full and swift from recent rains that any one, adult or child, who fell in would have had a hard time, Stultz said.
A baseball cap beside the road led to the discovery of a motorcycle accident in which Raymond Doucette died and Mathew Guimond was hurt in Westbrook. Kenny Grondin, 22, of 573 Stroudwater St., was driving home when he saw the new-looking cap lying beside the road at the Animal Refuge League curve. He stopped and went back for it. And then he noticed a motorcycle in the field. Investigating it, he found Guimond unconscious in the field beyond it, then he found Doucette dead. Doucette, a 23-year-old carpenter, lived with his mother, Thelma Durgin Doucette, at 146 South St., Gorham. Guimond, 19, owner of the motorcycle, lives on Weymouth Street, Portland. He suffered extensive ligament and muscle injuries but no broken bones.
The Westbrook Planning Board has recommended cutting its borrowing list for big street, sewer, building and equipment projects in half. For the last five years the city has borrowed an average of $1.2 million a year. The planning board still has a long list of the things it says the city needs and still favors borrowing the money to buy them, but now suggests borrowing $558,000 a year over the next four years.
A Gorham woman, age 20, staggered out of a downtown bar at 12:50 a.m. and was trying to hold up the building at Main Street and Park Hill Road. Her parents didn’t want her at home because of family problems. She slept on the Lock Box lawn for the night, and police looking out for her.
July 1992
Now is as good a time as any to invest in the expansion of Gorham High School, said the residents who attended a public hearing. “The decision isn’t to spend or not spend the money. We will spend money, one way or another,” school department Business Manager Bruce Rudy Rudolph said. “I’m very much in favor of this project. I think we’d be foolhardy to pass this opportunity up,” said Town Manager Paul Weston. In an effort to boost the depressed economy, the state as decided to fund 10 projects this year instead of the usual three. Gorham is seventh on the list. Last year Gorham was 37th out of 48.
John Kennie lost his registration certificate and it has cost him a $50 towing fee. He’d like his money back. Westbrook Police Chief Ronald Allanach said Kennie was properly charged with illegal attachment of plates. The charge has been lifted now, but not the towing fee. Police Capt. John Schmidlin said, “In 95 percent of the cases the motorist is respectful and cooperative and they will if not acknowledge the violation, at least give some indication to the officer that they are taking care with their driving and want to obey the rule of the road and comply, work with the police. If you have an individual who is verbally abusive or combative, then that can alter the complexion of the context.”
Hannaford Brothers of Scarborough has been trying to develop a shopping center on the old racetrack in Gorham since 1984. Officials from the company and area residents received another non-answer as the Gorham Planning Board passed the decision on to the town council.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection said that the S.S. Warren Co. paid a civil penalty for $725,000 in a consent agreement involving air emissions in Westbrook
Calling it “a bitter pill to swallow,” Alfred E. Porell, the only citizen offering any comments before the Westbrook City Council at the first reading to a new shoreland zoning ordinance, said the state will be using it to control land use in Westbrook. The council approved it, 7-1.
The Gorham Town Council was expected to establish a nonprofit corporation July 7 whose sole purpose will be to entice new business to Gorham. It will be run by a board of directors who will be elected by the council for a term of one year.
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