August 1982
The Westbrook City Council voted first-reading approval for a
$2.5 million revenue bond issue for a new Genuine Auto Parts store, machine shop, warehouse and office at 180 Larrabee Road. The new building is expected to bring $50,000 a year or so in additional property tax revenues for the city. The bonds will be issued in the name of the city but paid for by Genuine Parts, an Atlanta company.
Police are looking for two youths involved in a sexual assault on a
Portland woman, who was picking blueberries along the telephone pole line in Westbrook. The woman, 31, and a child were picking berries off the Duck Pond Road, out of sight of the road or any houses. At about 10:30 a.m., two youths approached. One touched her, and the other threw the child to the ground. The child cried, the woman screamed and the youths fled. She told police she thought they were about 16, but, after talking to her, they believe they were 19 or 20. They are circulating sketches of the two in hopes of identifying them.
The new, wider intersection in front of Westbrook’s Central Fire
Station makes it dangerous to park in front of the police station,
according to acting Police Chief Carmine Russo. He told the city
council that parking ought to be banned on the police station
side of Warren Avenue from the intersection to Warren Library,
including a the curb in front of the station. The council accepted
his suggestion for study.
“In 1977 we weren’t into the energy crisis we’re in now. It was a
low-budget concrete block building that was never sealed or
insulated,” said Westbrook Fire Chief James Rulman to the city
council, of Westbrook’s Mechanic Street fire station, built in that
year and now leaking rainwater and air. “We’re trying to get it ready to insulate it,” he told the council, which voted to spend $8,100 for repairs in a first reading. David Smith Co., the only bidder, at $2,700, will repair the building’s two roofs and flashing. R.M. Aube Concrete and Waterproofing Co. was the low bidder on the wall repair at $5,400.
Alice C. Fairservice, 139 Bridgeton Road, Westbrook, was thrilled
to meet and sit beside Barbara Bush, wife of Vice President
George Bush, when she was a special guest at a Maine
Federation of Republican Women picnic. The event as held at the home of Barbara Grover, Southport, a member of the Lincoln County Women’s Republican Club
August 1992
The threat of a mayor’s veto hangs over a proposal by Roger Gagnon, Gorham, to give Westbrook a 5-foot wide strip of land more than a thousand feet long next to the Westbrook High School. He’s offering the land to avoid Department of Environmental Protection review of any housing project at the former Stroudwater Locks site. Mayor Fred Wescott said he wants to be consistent. Two years ago, he vetoed acceptance of a land gift that would have removed from the DEP review a housing project at Mill Brook, and the council narrowly upheld his veto.
Westbrook’s school music director and superintendent were buying band uniforms just at the time the school committee and city council were working out a budget that has no money for them, Alderman Lionel Dummon suggested. “I feel I’ve been duped,” he told the school committee. “It is now apparent to me that your budget doesn’t mean very much. I will not give the school committee the opportunity to fool this alderman again.”
Leonard Harmon, 55, lives on Old Standish Road, off Route 114. He has been there 18 years. In the yard behind his home he runs a firewood business. And for a few extra cents, he cleans and strips scrap metal to be sold to dealers. His neighbors respect free enterprise. But some object to what they describe as an eyesore and possibly an environmental hazard. Town officials are trying to satisfy Harmon, his neighbors and town codes. He’s never had a permit to strip metal, and doesn’t know why he needs one now. Harmon is also quick to point out that he was there first. “If you don’t want to smell S.D. Warren,” he said, “you don’t move to “Westbrook.”
Full Belly Deli is advertising a hot brisket dinner for $5.35, a haddock dinner for $4.75 and clam cake dinner for $4.35.
From the police log: A Westbrook man came to the police station at 3 a.m. with a problem – he was giving a drunken woman a ride home but she passed out before he found out where she lives. A 66 Longfellow St. homeowner left the house for about 30 minutes and found the front door kicked in on return.
Two new signs on Main Street in Gorham are causing strong reactions from some citizens and prompting an update of a 20-year-old ordinance. Bag-o-Beans gourmet coffee shop and a Subway sandwich shop franchise are the prime targets. Code Enforcement Officer Mark Mitchell said, “First we need to get the committee together. At this point I’m not even sure who they are.” He said it would be at least three months before anything would be ready for review by the public.
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