March 16, 1983
Two state grants for advertising downtown Westbrook are being sought by the city. One, $48,000, is part of the Community Development application voted recently. It would be expected to stimulate $4,000 in advertising by merchants. The other is for $2,000, to be matched by $2,000 of merchants money, and was applied for Feb. 11 by Mayor William O’Gara “in behalf of he Westbrook Chamber of commerce.
Westbrook High School will be host this weekend to the regional one-act play festival. Eleven schools will perform during three sessions.Performing will be South Portland High School, Sanford, Cape Elizabeth, Bonny Eagle, Traip Academy, Yarmouth, Deering, Gorham, Westbrook, and Windham.
Emergency generators at both the police and fire
Department in Westbrook broke down Jan. 19 during the general blackout forced by the Fruitland fire. To avoid another such crisis, the city has reached an agreement for emergency backup power from the S.D. Warren paper mill. The City Council voted to get bids on stringing direct lines into fire headquarters and the police station from Warren.
Westbrook is having second thoughts about the small, state-authorized signs that are supposed to take the place of the banned billboards. The state’s rules could lead to a cluttered roadside – that’s the fear. Code Enforcement Officer Tom Wakefield said he issued permits for the first few under the impression that Westbrook had no options. Now he believes such signs not only must comply with state rules, but
also have to be permitted by the city.
Westbrook’s municipal officers voted their approval for a 12.5
percent increase in the basic monthly rate for cable TV service – from $8 a month to $9.
The City Council has voted to raise by $20 a week the retirement pay of Lester Clarke and Edward Caron, the only people who get Westbrook city pensions. The raise is to be retroactive to Oct. 1. Both are ex-policemen.
Data General has a new machine that promises to turn the tables on Digital Equipment Corp. After lagging “two years” behind its bigger rival, Data General now has leaped two years ahead, according to a report in the Boston Globe. The new Data General 32-bit computer, the Eclipse MV-100000, was introduced March 2 in New York City. The company said it is twice as fast as Data General’s previous best.
March 17, 1993
Ruth Plourde resigned as a first-grade teacher at Narragansett School after being arrested and charged with theft. The Gorham School Committee without discussion accepted her resignation last week. The teacher cited “personal reasons” for quitting. According to police, Plourde faces a misdemeanor charge involving the theft of an ATM card belonging to another woman.
“The $64,000 question” facing Westbrook High School’s new schedule is how to keep students interested for 80 minutes, but there are ways to do it, Principal William Michaud told the School Committee. For teachers who can’t or won’t learn those ways, there are “administrative remedies,” he said. Among the new ways to make use of 80-minute periods he mentioned were “exhibitions rather than paper and pencil,” teaching for long-range goals, and getting students “out of the classroom into the surrounding area.” Connolly said the change is far-reaching enough to affect also the junior high school.
Gorham School Superintendent Timothy McCormack says the Town Council’s stand on wanting to keep all new tax revenues from new construction work is “unsettling and unbelievable.” Town Manager Paul Weston countered that a decrease in the municipal budget over the past two years, a need to
devote more money to salaries, road paving and vehicle replacement, and a need to allocate budgets separately based on revenues, all are needed.
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