January, 1981
Sidney R. Branson, 68, M.D., retired Dec. 31 after serving Windham as a family physician and surgeon since 1939, except 1942-45 when he was an Army doctor in the South Pacific. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., he earned college and medical degrees at the University of Michigan. When he started, pneumonia, appendicitis and blood poisoning frequently were fatal, he recalled, but new medications now cure them. He sees other big gains in medicine, and he praises the work of Rescue Units, which were rare when he started. One of his interests is railroads; he is a member of the 470 Club, Portland, a division of the Railroad Enthusiasts of America.
Marion Wilmont, Westbrook, saw a Christmas-wrapped package fall from a car. The Westbrook Police helped her seek the right home for it. A card said, “To Michael, from Dad and Charlotte.”
An editorial praised President Jimmy Carter as the first president of his party since Grover Cleveland to leave office without having led the nation into war.
Three wild turkeys were seen on the River Road, Windham, a rare sight.
“Save Forest Street School” is the theme of a meeting in Westbrook.
Northeast Bank and Deering Savings and Loan closed their offices at 1 p.m. on the day before Christmas and the day before New Year’s Day.
The South Portland City Council voted 5-2 against Robert Fickett’s motion to withdraw from the Greater Portland Transit District. The other Yes vote was from Ralph Kilgore.
The state has ordered Gorham schools to make eight improvements in special education procedures.
Scarborough’s Town Council has accepted the title to the Dunstan Elementary School from the School Department. The school has been closed since June.
Lawrence Rosecrans, 38, of Troy, Mich., has been hired by the Scarborough Sanitary District as construction program manager for the $38 million wastewater treatment plant at Prout’s Neck.
January, 1991
Bernal B. Allen, who was city manager of South Portland 1957-1971, offers a brief review of the city’s achievements, concluding that South Portland is Maine’s wealthiest city per capita. Its budget per capita is among Maine’s highest, “but due to a total property valuation of approximately $1,400 million” it has the lowest tax rate of any Maine city.
Westbrook’s Mayor Fred Wescott briefly reviewed 1990 in remarks at a City Council meeting. Though the city lost the Data General and Unitrode plants, it got PrecisMetals, with the help of a revolving loan fund. Westbrook is on the way to becoming a member of Regional Waste Systems; has projects under way for housing and nursing care for the elderly, and has begun work on a riverbank walkway. Forest Street and Longfellow Street were reconstructed.
The temperature was 66 on Dec. 23, 10 degrees above the previous record for that date and the warmest day ever recorded so late in the season.
Joyce Parker, principal of Windham’s Arlington and Manchester Schools, is looking into starting 3-5 p.m. care programs for Grades 4, 5 and 6. She is concerned that kids go to empty homes or walk around malls or arcades; “their horizons tend to be limited by what they see on TV.”
Southern Maine Health Laundry is a new tenant in the Gorham Industrial Park. It does the laundry for hospitals and nursing homes.
South Portland is hiring Kathleen Conner, former city planner, to finish a new comprehensive plan for the city.
Scarborough’s Board of Education looked approvingly Thursday at a proposal for a second new school. It already is moving forward on a new school for Grades 6, 7 and 8. the latest proposal is for Grades K, 1 and 2. Each new building would have 600 or more students.
A new gazebo, the gift of the Warren Foundation, was erected on the Westbrook city lot between Westbrook Hardware and the John Hay funeral home last week.
Shop ‘N Save and K Mart in Scarborough were evacuated for an hour after a youthful male phoned a bomb threat to Shop ‘N Save. Firefighter and police searched the store.
Scarborough’s Board of Education raised the pay of Superintendent Shirley Grover 5 percent. She said she’ll accept only 1 percent until the budget picture is clearer.
U. S. Senator George Mitchell spoke recently on “Meeting the Global Threat to the environment.” In the First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland.
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