Feb. 29, 1984
Mayor Philip Spiller recommended to the City Council two new
high-level Westbrook city jobs – police captain, at $19,500 starting
pay, and fleet manager in the Public Works Department, pay
unspecified. The fleet manager request provoked a 2 1/2-hour debate in the council’s Finance Committee. William O’Gara, ex-mayor, was a vocal participant. In the end, the committee voted 4-3 to recommend to the City Council creating the job at $23,500.
The Westbrook City Council has been asked to replace or improve the Fales Road-Longly Road sewer, where a new apartment house development is planned. The request came with a recommendation that the city pay $301 to the Edward Barkers, 15 Fales Road, whose basement got about a foot of water in it Jan. 13. Thomas Eldridge, of the city’s Public Works Department, said the sewer backed up after it apparently was blocked at an offset joint in the street.
The situation has roused the interest Alderman Alexander
Juniewicz. He told the City Council Monday: “My concern is, I want to know how a development got approved that may cost the city a good deal of money.” Alderman Bernard Blanchet then said, “It was an oversight that the Planning Board had that approved. In the street you always have an 8-inch line, but it turned out to be 6 inches.”
Competing for election to the Gorham Town Council are: C. Russell
Boothby, a lifelong Gorham resident, is seeking a third term. He has served as chairman for one year. Boothby lives on South Street and is retired after 30 years as a general contractor with T.R. Boothby and Son, a business founded by his father, who died last year. Calvin Hamblen has served two terms, first serving 1973-74.
Hamblen was acting town manager for three months in 1969. He was also a state representative from Gorham in 1973-74. Nicholas Kirby is the husband of Christina K. Crawford, children’s librarian at Baxter Memorial Library. He has a master’s from Harvard University. Richard L. McKeil is an economics professor in the University of Southern Maine’s School of Business, Economics, and Management. He has been a member of the Gorham Planning Board for five years. Patrick H. Burke has a bachelor’s in political science from Villanova College and a master’s from USM.
March 2, 1994
Some people are a little reluctant when they first see me,” said
Denise Wescott, East Bridge Street, and Westbrook. “But as soon as I get to work, I put their minds at ease.” Work, for Denise, is operating Wescott Towing’s 24-foot flatbed truck. She’s been at it since 1986, first in a Chevy, but now in a 1-ton Ford custom truck. She takes care of police calls, usually dealing with people
operating under the influence or operating with their license under
suspension. She also handles broken-down vehicles, rollovers and major accidents, usually with her 15-month-ol son, Stevie, buckled in the car seat. Sometimes 3-year-old William comes along for the ride. During school vacations, 7-year-old Julie, a second-grader at Prides Corner School, can be found in the front seat. But on a recent snow day just Stevie was strapped into the front seat sound asleep.
“He’s used to it,” Denise said. “He’s been going on calls since
he was in the womb.
The Maine Turnpike Authority notified Westbrook last week that a
new exit 8 (the old one to become exit 8A) is one of two survivors
among four new exits considered for our area. The decision means that planning will continue, with an uncertain construction date. The announcement was greeted with cheers in Westbrook as guaranteeing continued growth in the exit 8 area, one of
the most active in the metropolitan area.
On Feb. 27, 1989, the Westbrook School Committee adopted a policy on nepotism that forbids hiring “next of kin” (spouse, parent,
sibling, child) of a member of the School Committee or the
Superintendent of Schools. That policy may still be in effect, despite the hiring of Superintendent Edward Connolly’s daughter Jennifer Huston as volunteer coordinator. School Committee Chairman Martha Day said Monday, in answer to the American Journal questions that the policy was set aside in 1991, but there is no record of that action in the minutes. She said a nepotism policy spelling out the 1991 decision probably will be in the packet for the committee’s next meeting, March 9. Huston is paid with Westbrook school funds to write unsigned articles for a Windham give-away paper trying to expand into Westbrook. The separate payments were unknown to the Westbrook School Committee until discovered by Nancy Curran. The committee has known that Huston was being paid by the schools to write exclusive pieces for the Suburban News. Members thought she was doing it as part of her duties as the schools volunteer coordinator. In fact, she was paid an extra $636 for four weeks’ work on Feb. 9. Weekly amounts were $132, $262, $132 and $120. Apparently others represent $12 and hour.
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