April 20, 1983

Genuine Parts Co. will go ahead on is own to build its $2.5 million

office-shop-warehouse in the exit 8 area of Westbrook, Mayor William B. O’Gara announced to the City Council Monday. The building will have 45,000 to 60,000 square feet, with two floors of office space and a double-deck warehouse area, he said. The company is dropping its attempt to get tax-exempt bonds for the building through the industrial revenue bond program of the Maine Guarantee Authority. It had been opposed at the MGA by other auto parts suppliers, who argued that their business would be hurt by that kind of government assistance for a competitor.

Westbrook police notes: A flatbed pushcart, 6-by-10 feet, valued at

$1,200, was missing from the railroad shack on Rochester Street, but was recovered soon afterward. Frances Jordan, 25, was taken to the Osteopathic Hospital after her foot was caught in a machine at Westbrook Spinning Mill. At 2:30 a.m., a woman said someone was banging on her door and ringing her doorbell. Police found her husband trying to get it; the doors were chain-locked. After a 12-year-old boy was kicked out of a dance, he pulled a no-parking sign out of the ground. Two mattresses were burning on the lawn at 616 Brook St. at 5:48 a.m.; firemen put them out. METCO Co., in its first week in a new building on the County Road, got a nighttime visit from a burglar.

A group of opponents urged in a letter to the American Journal that

a new junior high school be built on the Merrill land, 32 acres owned

by the city next to the high school. They added: “We further strongly believe that children below the 7th Grade should continue to attend the ‘so-called’ neighborhood schools.” Signers of that letter were Russ Day, Wallace Rogers, Bill O’Gara, Janet Cargill, Don Richards, Louis Blanchette, Beverly O’Gara, Florence Day, Priscilla Rogers and Del Cargill.

Hebert’s West End Market, 934 Main St., Westbrook, is

advertising fresh eggs for 69 cents a dozen, a pound of bacon for $1.49, spare ribs at $1.49 a pound and London broil steak at $1.99 a pound.

Fireworks will be added to this year’s Westbrook Together Day on June 18, if enough funds can be raised from Westbrook’s business community.This was one of the decisions reached as the Westbrook Together team moved things into high gear for the fourth annual summer fun day. The cost of the fireworks will be at least $1,800. It will be the first time fireworks have been part of the fun. A likely spot for shooting them is Yudy’s Island, Nancy Carr Millett said.

The Village Laundry sidewalk lost 4-3 again in the Westbrook City Council this week, with two aldermen switching sides. Beverly Morin, previously opposed, brought up the $1,500 sidewalk issue back before the council, and voted to build it. But Philip Spiller, previously in favor, voted against it.

April 21, 1993

A brief trip to Gorham turned into a big loss for a 19-year-old

Spanish visitor this month. Jose Frias, who was in town visiting

exchange student Pablo Pelayo, lost his wallet during the stay. Police said the gray cloth wallet with Spanish identification

and $1,000 in American cash was last seen by Frias at Cumberland Farms at 10:30 p.m. on April 7.

The group opposing plans to remove the middle row of wooden pews from Steep Falls Baptist Church is claiming victory, but the minister disagrees. “The pews are staying,” said Dorothy Halite, one of the main opposition leaders. “We are the winners. I feel good that our church is ours again.” The plan was first proposed at the church’s annual meeting Jan. 20, when only three members voted in opposition. But that decision was invalidated in February since moderator the Rev. Albert Earl was not an official church member. In the interim, a group formed to mount an opposition campaign and at a meeting there was a unanimous vote to keep the wooden benches.

T

he erasure of an aldermen’s argument from a Westbrook City Council videotape took place after he turned the tape over to the Walker Memorial Library, Lionel Dumond said. He denied swearing or using vulgar language in the argument and said the question “Who swore?” has become important, since Westbrook police see swearing as the motive for erasing. Police got into the tape erasing case Thursday after an unnamed member of the police department told Chief Ronald Allanach that it had occurred and broke state law. Editor Harry Foote, in an editorial in the Journal, wrote, “If no one thinks the tape should have been made, no one should care who erased it. The meeting was over. No reporters were present. The only outsiders were not so much outsiders as

friends, Marty Pizzo and Fred Porell of the Planning Board. Aldermen thought they were alone together. What an alderman says to an alderman in private is not considered part of any public record.”

Westbrook police notes: A woman said her pocketbook was stolen at Shop n’ Save. A patrolman talked to two boys who were fighting at Westbrook Gardens. A vandal spray-painted a woman’s car at 821 Main St. Four children 9 and 10 years old at Abby Lane were playing with a remote control device that was on fire at 7:30 p.m. Police put out the fire and sent them home. A citizen saw kids carrying cases of beer into the woods at 406 Bridgton Road at 11:30 a.m. on April 8. Police took 17 juveniles into custody. During the night, someone spray-painted the van of the group home on Woodmont Street.

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