July 13, 1983

The owners of Gorham Service Center, 100 State St., Gorham, have reached an agreement with the Maine Department of Transportation whereby the state will take the entire property. Paul Wood, who owns the business with his wife, Carol, said the agreement “takes effect today.” He said the DOT is giving them until Aug. 20 to vacate the property. The state is rebuilding the intersection of routes 202 and 25 west of Gorham Village, and at first wanted to take only the front part of the Woods’ property, where the service station and variety store building is located.

Beverly Morin and Norman Connolly, key Republicans on the

Westbrook City Council, won’t be running for third terms this December and their party is looking for candidates to run in their places. Republican City Committee Chairman Lyle Cramer said an advisory committee is working with the nominating committee to find candidates for these and other city offices. A list of 130 possible candidates was developed and is being called.

Dale Van Gilder has resigned as principal of Westbrook Junior High School. The resignation was accepted by the School Committee June 28 and is effective Aug. 31. Van Gilder came to Westbrook in 1974 from Millville, N.J., where he

grew up, and where he had been junior high school principal 12 years. He left Millville because the town had acquired a lot of big-city problems and his job had become more like that of a police captain, he said. Van Gilder, known as a fundamentalist in education, favors basics, not frills. He was chosen by the School Committee to chair a citizen’s study committee

that worked for nine months on how to make best use of Westbrook school buildings and how to get the best educational system. It recommended a return to the grammar school system, in which each school houses eight grades. On recommendation of Edward Connolly, then acting superintendent and now superintendent, the School Committee voted instead to make the junior high a middle school. Van Gilder’s committee was given no further hearing.

Westbrook police notes: A 25-year-old man was arrested on King Street at 2 a.m. and charged with driving under the influence of liquor, eluding arrest, driving 60 mph in a 25 mile zone, driving a motorcycle without a license, and illegal attachment of plates. He was released on personal recognizance. While Mrs. Peterson, 41 Waltham St., was

upstairs at 2:30 p.m. and her husband was in the back yard, someone walked into the house and stole $40 from her pocketbook on the couch. Dennis Connolly was overcome by fumes of a chlorine leak at the Cornelia Warren outdoor swimming pool at 8:55 p.m., June 28, and drove

himself to the hospital. Firemen were called to the pool.

July 14, 1993

An error in assessment discovered Monday shaved $5 million off Westbrook’s total valuation and raised the tax rate from an expected $18.41 to $18.51 per thousand. Mayor Fred Wescott promised the City Council that he would look closely into the mistake. Assessor James Jessen, for his part, said City Hall wanted total valuation figures (to set the tax rate and get the bills out) before the assessing system was ready to produce them. Otherwise, the error might have been caught, he said.

Tumbling calcium carbonate started to gob together in the lime kiln at the S.D. Warren mill in Westbrook, forming a chunk that got as big as an office desk before it was broken up Monday. Taking care of that meant an episode of mill odor Sunday, and another one likely before things get back to normal. “The gases that people smell are especially

pungent,” said Elizabeth Sisson, Warren manager of community relations and communications. An atmospheric inversion at about 1,500 feet made things worse, holding the smell close to the ground It was noticed most on the west side of Portland, the Riverton, Deering and Baxter Boulevard neighborhoods, Sisson said.

Westbrook police notes: At 4:54 a.m., a patrolman saw Bruce Barker, 43, on the Methodist Road and asked him what he was doing there. He was counting and watching birds. Juveniles were running around a citizen’s home at the Methodist Road

and East Bridge Street at 9:45 p.m. Police found them and told them to stop urinating in public. Someone pulled up the flowers in pots in front of Aubuchon. At Declaration Drive and Quaker Road, a man said kids were shooting fireworks out a window that were landing on his roof. Gorham police asked for help with a large party of drunken kids. A woman said her soon-to-be-ex-husband had punched several dents in her car at Cumberland Mills. A truck he pursued into the Deer Hill

section early Sunday morning rammed Chief Ronald Allanach’s Westbrook police cruiser. The three men in it ran away, but police have the truck and a bag of white powder. The owner is wanted in Saco for driving after his license was suspended and for failure to pay a fine.

Fire damaged the Don’s Lunch lunchwagon yesterday and was likely to keep it off its station on Main Street last night. Owner

Don Richards said he was afraid there was extensive damage to wiring, and the wagon would need professional cleaning. An employee working on a Fryolator left a rag where a pilot light set it afire and the fire spread quickly, he said. Westbrook firemen were called to put it out. The wagon was at Richards’ house on Saco Street.

At Fisherman’s Net in Portland, fresh lobster meat is $19.95 a pound.

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