Aug. 3, 1983
You might see them as early as next summer, floating like
helium-filled dreams. Blimps. Navy blimps. Coast Guard blimps. According to Jim McGranachen, Coast Guard spokesman at the Treasury Department, Washington, D.C., blimps are coming back into service as multi-mission vehicles for the Navy and Coast Guard. In a joint venture this summer, the two services are testing an English-built blimp called the Skyship 500. “The Navy has already put $460,000 into the project,” a Navy source has told the American Journal. The new blimps would be roughly twice the size of the Goodyear blimp,” said the Coast Guard’s McGranachen. “They’d go out for three- to four-day patrols and feature kitchen and quarters for the crew.”
Phillip Spiller is a willing candidate if the Republicans want him to run for mayor of Westbrook this year, he said this week. If not, he’ll “run for something” – most likely for a second term as alderman-at-large. Spiller gave his position in an American Journal poll of present Westbrook City Council members and their plans for the November city election. Charles Malcolm Roma, Democratic alderman-at-large, said he’d seek
re-election. If Mayor William B. O’Gara should decide against seeking a sixth term, and if his party wanted him, Roma said he would accept the mayor nomination. O’Gara, a Democrat, hasn’t announced his plans.
The Westbrook City Council has agreed to spend $5,000 to try to save the city’s nine-year-old Engine 1 fire pumper from rust It voted the money a week after the city took delivery on an “all-aluminum” fire truck to replace it, costing $147,116. Fire Chief James Rulman said the older truck wouldn’t be rust-proofed; it’ll be “refurbished.”
The Gorham School Department will buy four Apple II computers for the elementary schools and an Apple III computer for the high school library, Superintendent
Woodbury Saunders announced at the School Committee meeting Wednesday. Shaw Junior High will get a Texas Instrument microcomputer, the TT-994A. Thirty-two new Olympia electronic typewriters, at $610 each, will replace older, manual units at the high school this fall. The computers and typewriters were purchased with $16,000 worth of existing assets and a $20,000 loan from Northeast Bank at a 6.04 percent interest rate.
The Gorham School Committee elected the following
new teachers Wednesday: Mary Ellen Moon, Grade 1, Narragansett School; Kelly J. Hasson, Grade 2, White Rock School (new position); David J. Thomas, industrial arts, Shaw Junior High School; Janice N. Watt, physical education, Gorham High School; and Carol Ann Roy, appointed guidance counselor at the junior high.
Aug. 4, 1993
Westbrook Assessor James Jessen is on vacation until Sept. 15 or 16, Mayor Fred Wescott said Friday. “And that’s all I’m going to say,” he said. The mayor was asked about a report that Jessen had been fired. He said the mayor cannot fire an assessor; it takes a vote of the City Council to do it. “You know that hasn’t happened,” the mayor added. At City Hall Annex, where the assessor’s office is located, both Jessen
and his assistant Jean MacDougal, to whom he was married recently, were reported to be at the State Tax Assessor’s School at the University of Maine this week. A reporter couldn’t get through to either of them. Jessen has been city assessor about eight years, and presided over the 1991 complete city revaluation. He took over when the city had a troubled
computer system in the assessor’s office and replaced it with the one in use now. The report that he is leaving came close on the heels of an agreement settling Scott Paper Co.’s claims for over-assessment at a cost to the city of $950,000 plus legal fees. Jessen was on the spot recently over an error that put the city’s total valuation $5 million higher than it really was. Discovery of the error forced the tax rate to go up.
Superintendent Timothy McCormack told the Gorham
Town Council that reducing the school budget by more than $50,000 means there would be cuts in personnel. He said that shortly before councilors last week voted to slice $111,525 from the school budget. “A reduction (in staff positions) is particularly difficult because of increased enrolments,” McCormack said. School Board Chairwoman Jill Knight,
who appeared close to tears when the council considered a $125,000 cut in school expenses, told councilors she was “mortified” that they would consider withdrawing that much money. Earlier in the meeting, she encouraged the council to ‘hold the line” on the budget. PTA treasurer Bill Chicoine, who is organizing the latest petition to recall the budget, says the state has programs to help people on fixed incomes who have trouble paying their taxes.
The $16,560,777 Gorham town and school budget – already recalled, chopped and approved anew by the Town Council – is facing yet another recall vote. Bill Chicoine of High Meadow Drive on Friday picked up petitions from Town Hall that
if signed with enough names would force the council to review the budget one more. The council early Friday morning approved the most recent budget after more than
two hours of cutting by councilors. Chicoine said he wants the school money restored, and is confident that the 909 signatures need to put another referendum question before voters can be gathered quickly.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
