Observers of last week’s voting patterns say Scarborough is becoming a town of young Republicans, while opinions were split over Cape Elizabeth’s political leanings.

Both towns voted heavily for Peter Cianchette, the Republican gubernatorial candidate from South Portland, and Susan Collins, the incumbent Republican U.S. Senator. But some believe Cape Elizabeth’s support for Cianchette was based on his local status as much as his politics, considering Democrat Janet McLaughlin won re-election to the state House of Representatives.

In Scarborough, however, Republicans carried the day in all partisan races.

Harold Clough was re-elected to the House, and South Portland Republican Linda Boudreau won the town, although losing her state Senate race to Democrat Lynn Bromley. Michael Dell’Olio, a Republican, garnered eight more votes for the state Senate than fellow Scarborough resident and incumbent Peggy Pendleton, a Democrat. As in the past, however, Pendleton won handily, relying on Democratic support in Saco.

“I really wasn’t surprised that Scarborough voted for Michael,” Pendleton said. “In the past, when I have run against a Republican from Scarborough, the voters have supported the Republican. It’s a conservative town. I don’t think a Democrat could really survive in Scarborough.”

More than 1,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition opposed to the Great American Neighborhood in Dunstan and organizers have asked how they can overturn council approval of the project if the vote doesn’t go their way.

Some of those who signed the petition at the polls on Election Day include town historian Rodney Laughton, high school biology teacher and wife of Town Councilor Steve Ross, Ellen Ross, and Harold Snow of the famed Snow Clam Chowder family.

“I think it is a great concept, but the wrong location,” Laughton said.

“Development doesn’t bother me. But until they really solve the traffic problem, and not just a Band-Aid fix there, I don’t think it’s the right time for the Great American Neighborhood.”

Next summer tourists and residents alike may be asked to pay an entry fee to use Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, home to the famed Portland Head Light and reported to be one of the most visited parks in the country.

Although charging for use of the park off Shore Road is a perennial discussion in Cape, this time Town Councilor and Finance Committee Chair Mary Ann Lynch is hoping that other councilors will support the idea.

“One of the things I said when I campaigned for a seat on the council was that there were no sacred cows,” Lynch said in an interview. “I am mindful that this is going to be a very difficult budget year, and while I don’t want to just react to one bad budget year, the beauty of my proposal is that charging (an entry fee) would not only cover maintenance of the park but would provide the town extra revenue as well,” she said.

It looks like Scarborough Town Councilor Patrick O’Reilly will be the new council chairman when the council votes on that position at its next meeting on Nov. 20.

O’Reilly told the Current he would be willing to serve as the council chair, if at least four other councilors would support him for that position. According to a poll of councilors conducted by this newspaper, O’Reilly has enough support to be elected.

Gorham has received applications or has had preliminary discussions with developers for 249 new single-family homes in subdivisions alone since January – a housing boom that could overwhelm already over-taxed town services.

Assistant Town Planner Aaron Shields said the town has become a magnet for both new home buyers and developers, who have been priced out of towns closer to Portland. There have been 14 subdivision proposals submitted or approved since the beginning of the year, and Gorham Assessor David Sawyer said that’s only part of the picture.

John Ginn, the son of Cape resident Gregg Ginn and stepson of Town Councilor Mary Ann Lynch, is an attack-helicopter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. Capt. Ginn attended high school in Massachusetts and went to Colby College in Waterville, graduating in 1997.

“The idea of military service was always something that interested me,” said Ginn, whose father is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. He chose a civilian college rather than a military academy or enlisting right out of high school because he wanted to continue to participate actively in football, basketball and lacrosse.

Rug hooking is an art form going back to Colonial times and is as simple as pulling a strand of wool through a foundation of cotton or linen and as difficult as envisioning complicated patterns with many variations of color.

Meet Scarborough’s rug hooking master, Jacqueline Hansen.

Hansen’s shop on Pine Point Road is called the 1840 House and is full of colorful strands of wool, many examples of her fine work and pattern books and hooking sets for sale. Hansen got started hooking rugs as a hobby and then began building a national reputation.

On Nov. 6, the Scarborough Town Council took the first step in a three-stage process to rework the traffic flow in the Green Acres area, approving amendments to the town’s traffic laws that would prevent through traffic from taking Maple Avenue from Route 114 to Route 1.

The directors of Camp Ketcha in Scarborough have a new vision for the 92-year-old day camp and are seeking the public’s support to achieve it.

Rather than hire a new executive director to replace Andrew Dixon, who resigned last month, five members of the camp’s board of directors have taken over the position’s duties themselves.

In spite of a no-cut “philosophy” for Scarborough Middle School sports, girls wanting to play basketball on the seventh- and eighth-grade teams were asked to try out for only about 30 spots last week. Approximately 50 girls had signed up, most believing there would be no cuts from the team.

Frank Spencer, Scarborough schools athletic director, told the Current that when it comes to middle school sports the school department has a philosophy of inclusion not exclusion, but with budget and facility constraints there is only so much he can do.

Cape Elizabeth School Board members will take up discussion of a $9 million school building project at a workshop Nov. 19, to hammer out the details of a recommendation the board will make to the Town Council in January.

Scarborough’s Bill Kennedy helps physically disabled people learn to drive cars, allowing them to be more independent than they might otherwise be.

Kennedy, who owns and runs Downeast Driving School, uses a wide variety of adaptive equipment to help people drive, even if they can’t use some parts of their bodies.

“I’ve given lots of people driving lessons,” Kennedy said. Some of them are older people who have had a stroke or other medical condition that requires the state to give them another driver’s test.

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