March 30, 1988
Chief Ronald Allanach has launched Phase 1 of a reorganization of the Westbrook Police Department, with expanded duties for sergeants and detectives and with several changes in how the police station is used. Phase 2 will be based on a study of the department’s administration, field operations and training functions by two outside agencies. The City Council is setting aside about $12,000 for it. The study is expected to start soon. One of the bigger changes of Phase 1 will become official April 1 when the department’s two detectives join forces with the two Juvenile Division patrolmen in a combined Criminal Investigation-Juvenile Division. Allanach named Thomas R. Merrill to head this combined division. With 18 years as a patrolman, Merrill is the department’s fourth-longest-serving member, behind Sgt. Michael Sanphy, Deputy Chief Wayne Syphers and Sgt. Allen Tundel.
Shaw Brothers Construction of Gorham has proposed a 76-unit apartment and townhouse complex just off Gorham Village, which would be the largest multi-family housing ever built in town. The project, which will come before the Planning Board April 4 for preliminary subdivision and site plan review, is planned for a site off School Street opposite the University of Southern Maine access drive. “Village Square” would comprise four 16-unit, two-story brick apartment buildings, each 29 feet high. There would also be 12 townhouse units in two other two-story brick buildings with six units in each. Mark Barnes, office administrator for Shaw Brothers, said that Village Square is hoping to fill the need for middle-income housing for young professionals.
Kenneth M. Lefebvre of Westbrook has announced his candidacy for the Maine Senate District 28 seat now held by Ron Usher, who is not running for re-election. Lefebvre, a Democrat, is serving his second term as Ward 4 alderman and previously served three years as city auditor. He enters the race against his one-time Little League teammate and fellow Democratic alderman, City Council President Donald Esty Jr. Also in the three-way race for the Democratic nomination is Tuffy Laffin of Westbrook, former three-term state representative. The primary is June 14.
David Sparks, Westbrook’s part-time animal control office, is getting lots of praise and is saving the city lots of money. In 1987, the city issued 440 dog licenses. After only 12 weeks in 1988, that number stands at 350. “I think there are about 2,000 dogs in the city,” Sparks said. “My goal is to get at least 1,200 of them registered this year.” He travels from 150 to 200 miles a week in Westbrook looking for unregistered dogs, mixing neighborhoods and times of day. He has sent three people to court for refusing to register their dogs, 20 others to court for letting dogs run loose, and one owner for refusing to put a secure collar and tag on his dog. Almost nobody used to go to court for such things in Westbrook, he said. Sparks gets $113.75 for 17.5 hours a week. He took the place of a patrolman who cost the city $600 a week in pay and fringe benefits.
The planned transformation of 100 acres of a former pig farm on Day Road in Gorham into a 41-lot housing development has drawn some close scrutiny for some Day Road residents. The project, called Winterwood, has been put forward by the Congin Group, a Westbrook-based development company whose principals are Paul Holloway, a Westbrook landlord and developer, in partnership with David, Ron and Tom Metivier. Pointed questions about the plan were raised at a pre-application review by the Planning Board March 21. The number of lots has been cut by more than half from the 87 initially proposed, in part due to the efforts of some concerned neighbors. Day Road is a narrow country road with little or no shoulder and has several bad hills. The project is expected to generate some 400 car trips a day, and neighbor Roger Brown took issue with a plan to put two access roads onto Day Road.
April 1, 1998
William Michaud, principal of Westbrook High School, told the School Committee that he doesn’t think every student needs four years to graduate. His comments came during a discussion of block scheduling, the 80-minute class system in use the past five years. He said students now get eight classes a semester; they formerly got seven. “It has led us to explore the idea that four years of high school is not necessarily sacrosanct and that many students are capable to complete high school in less than four years.”
Vacant industrial land in Westbrook is in short supply, and Mayor Don Esty’s administration wants to acquire it soon to ensure “quality” development that is open to public scrutiny. So far, however, the scrutiny has been on Esty and the city. A special meeting of the City Council’s Community Services and Economic Development Committee this week addressed public complaints about the city’s aggressive behavior in acquiring land for the Five Star Industrial Park, of which the centerpiece would be the 520 megawatt, $200 million gas-fired power plant proposed by Westbrook Power Corp. and General Electric. The city purchased an option to buy 30 acres off Saco Street from Polly Carmichael for $180,000, which has since become the site for the proposed plant. The city has threatened to take 38 acres along Saco Street from Ray Boivin by eminent domain if he doesn’t sell to the city for $375,000.
Wesley McKeague, hired under Mayor Donald Saunders as Westbrook’s first municipal arborist and boss of the brand new forestry department in 1968, has died in Florida at age 67. His hiring and the founding of a city tree department won prase at what was the height of the die-off of the area’s elm trees from Dutch elm disease. McKeague and crew were busy for some five years safely cutting and hauling away the skeletons of dead and dying giants. It was a great service to the city at low cost compared to hiring a commercial tree firm. “I think he said something like 4,000 elms were taken down in the city,” said Ellie Saunders, the mayor’s widow. “A lot of good work, and heartbreaking, too.”McKeague also turned to new plantings to rebeautify the city, and kept detailed records of trees and plantings. McKeague retired following heart trouble in 1993.
Gordon and Maryanne Trynor and Gordon III, Narragansett Street, spent a fun-filled vacation in Florida during February. Their week in Orlando included a visit to Medieval Times with its jousting matches. They also visited Disney World, Sea World and Daytona, where they saw qualifying NASCAR races. Although it was somewhat rainy, it was a good vacation.
Hulda Bragdon entertained the West Gorham Extension Group at the recreation room at Village Square Housing, School Street. Gail MacLean, York-Cumberland Housing’s director of assisted living, spoke on senior housing and the new assisted living residence at the Thomas P. Smith House, 741 Main St., Westbrook, with another to open soon in Gorham.
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Church Street between Wayside Drive and Main Street, as it was being rebuilt during urban renewal. The building on the left was 7 Church St., and was occupied by Kenneth and Mary Jack and the Ingraham-Jack Insurance Agency. The other building is 830 Main St., occupied by Peter’s Tea Room and Peter’s Fruit Store and owned and operated by Chris and Evelyn Peters, who occupied the upper floors of the building. Both buildings were demolished and the space was used to widen Church Street. To see more historical photos and artifacts, visit the Westbrook Historical Society at the Fred C. Wescott Building, 426 Bridge St. Inquiries can be emailed to westhistorical@myfairpoint.net. The website is www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org. Photo and research courtesy of Mike Sanphy
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