May 23, 1984
Blue Rock Industries, Westbrook, lost a good customer with the
shutdown of construction at the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. From its Westbrook quarries, Blue Rock has supplied all the coarse aggregate for the concrete at both Seabrook I and Seabrook II. While declining to give figures, Robert Nunley, Windham, manager of Blue Rock, said Seabrook has given a “substantial amount” of business to Blue Rock, and the shutdown “affects us adversely.” Massive concrete structures are typical of nuclear power plants. Seabrook notified Blue Rock 3 1/2 weeks ago that construction was being suspended. The last shipment went to it in December, as construction work slowed down in its money squeeze. Seabrook’s account with Blue Rock has been paid in full, Nunley said. Blue Rock won the contract with Seabrook on a combination of price and quality. “Quality control requirements are very strict,” Nunley said. Blue Rock sent the materials to Seabrook by rail. Another contractor supplied the sand.
Mayor Philip Spiller announced Monday night the resignation of
Kenneth W. Eastman after 14 years as Westbrook’s director of public works. The mayor named Thomas Eldridge as acting public works director until a permanent appointment is made. Eldridge has been sewer superintendent. Eastman wrote that the decision to resign was the most difficult he has had to make but he was forced to do it because of medical problems
that have increased, instead of decreasing as he had hoped they would.
Westbrook police notes: Someone dumped 25 or 30 tires in the ally next to 333 Brown St. Westbrook police relayed word to Gorham Rescue to go to the aid of Douglas Morse, who cut his hand in a drill press at Thompson Machine. At midnight, a man climbed a Brown Street fire escape to do battle with a girl’s boyfriend. Police broke it after her sister called them. Mr. Daley chased the people who were trying, at 2 a.m., to break into
his garage at 572 Spring St. to steal his son’s 3-wheel all-terrain vehicle. They ran toward Finch Street. Police caught two of them. A boy, 2 years old, was returned to his home in the Bridge Street School apartments after he was found walking down the middle of Winslow Street at noon with no clothes on.
May 25, 1994
The Gorham School Committee, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent Timothy McCormack, cut 1.6 full-time high school business teachers from the $12,914,960 1994-95 school budget, a budget with an increase of more than $500,000 over the previous year. With the cut, only one business teacher will be left at Gorham High School; courses in accounting, information processing, and Introduction to Business will be lost. Bill Luce is a full-time business teacher at Gorham High School with 17 years’ experience. He’s also adviser to the school’s yearbook staff. With the School Committee’s vote, Luce wouldn’t be returning to his job at the high school in the fall.
Westbrook Police Capts. Paul McCarthy and John Schmidlin will
share responsibility as interim chiefs while the city seeks a
successor to Police Chief Ronald Allanach, whose resignation takes effect Tuesday night, acting mayor Kenneth Lefebvre said.
T.J. Storer, Westbrook’s deputy city clerk, asked the City
Council Monday to put her into a new job, secretary of the City
Council and its committees. Within minutes of taking up the idea, the council closed its doors to talk about “a little personality conflict” between Storer and City Clerk Barbara Hawkes. The closed-door meeting lasted an hour and didn’t settle the question. Aldermen tabled Storer’s request until another session of their Personnel Committee. Hawkes and Storer both attended the closed-door meeting. So did the
city’s lawyers and the mayor’s assistant.
The Maine Human Rights Commission voted 3-2 Monday finding that the city of Westbrook violated firefighter Kathy Reynolds’ rights under the “whistleblower” law and by sexual discrimination. The case hinged on how the city scheduled Reynolds for paramedic work with the Rescue Unit after she got the full-time firefighter job. The sexual discrimination ruling was a surprise. An investigator for the commission found no sexual discrimination. Reynolds’ lawyer, Joyce Oreskoich, Portland, said, “It’s not that there were any sexual innuendoes,” She said the scheduling was different for Reynolds only because she is a woman.
Detective Sgt. Stephen Lyons expects to hear this week whether the district attorney’s office will seek to prosecute a case of “official oppression” in Westbrook City Hall. Lyons said he has told Deputy District Attorney Ed Folsom about
the complaint and expects to hear from Folsom by mid-week. The case involves the handling of information about missing money for auto registrations in Westbrook City Hall. It alleges that the oppression took place in April 1993.
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