Feb. 22, 1984
Westbrook’s Housing Authority fell out of love with the old high school on Valentine’s Day. After an afternoon tour of the school, shower room to tower room, members voted 5-1 not to try to rebuild it for senior citizens housing. The biggest objection raised was that the elderly would be annoyed, or even afraid, to share the school with the boisterous young people who use the Recreation Center. Nevertheless the project may not be dead. A federal subsidy is available, and the Authority said it would be glad to help a private developer use it. The private developer to do the job is not in sight but has at least six months to appear. The grant should be claimed with developed plans before the end of 1985, WHA’s Executive Director James Smith said.
The three-year-old legal battle between four Gorham residents and the town of Gorham over the management of town-administered charitable trust funds was settled. A consent agreement was signed by attorneys for the town and for
the complainants, and by a representative of the Attorney General’s Office, which took the complainants’ side in the case. It combines three trust funds – the John A Waterman, Simon Huston and Laura Libby funds – into a new “Huston-Waterman Fund,” with $30,146 in principal. Under the agreement, interest only from the fund will be available to needy residents of Gorham, a figure that will total about $3,000 if 10 percent return is realized on the current balance. Also to be included in the trust is money received from the sale of the Waterman land in back of the former Charlotte Millet school, and from any timber sold off the land, but Town Manager Donald Gerrish couldn’t estimate how much that will be.
The Westbrook High boys swim team finished fifth in the State
Class A boys championship meet at UMO in a 12-team field. In the process the Blazes eclipsed a pair of school records, one in the medley relay, the other in diving.
Westbrook High’s Ricky Davis captured top honors in the 120-pound division, the best of a strong Blazer showing in the Western Class A regional wrestling meet at Sanford. Five other Paper City grapplers finished fourth or higher and all
qualified for the State Class A championship at Deering High.
Feb 23, 1994
Daniel Plowman, Scarborough, and Samuel D’Alfonso, Portland, are suing separately for injuries received in separate but similar accidents on No. 26 coated cutter sheeter machine at the S.D. Warren paper mill in Westbrook. They ask for “reasonable” and “fair” compensation for having an arm pulled into the machine. The suits are against Jagerberg Inc. of Connecticut, maker of the machine. In response to D’Alfonso, Jagerberg says if there was a fault it was Warren’s. Daniel and Cheryl Plowman, 224 Black Point Road, are suing over an accident Nov. 23, 1991. Plowman, whose wife is the chairman of the School Committee in Scarborough, has worked at Warren since November
1980. Plowman had been working on No. 26 about a year at the time of the accident. He was substituting on the No. 26 machine because a co-worker was out of work due to a heart attack. His permanent job at the mill involved working on Machine No.24. Plowman’s right arm and hand were pulled into the machine, also
receiving second and third degree burns from a part of the machine called a “blanket.” The case is expected to be ready for court in October of 1994.
The baby who spent about three days in a South Portland apartment with his murdered mother will live with his father in Westbrook when he leaves the hospital. Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said Tammy Dickson,
the 22-year-old victim, and her former husband, Anthony Dickson, had joint custody of Marcus, their 18-month old son. Anthony Dickson lives at 23 Windsor St., Westbrook, and McCausland said the toddler “will go to live with his father” when he leaves Maine Medical Center in Portland. Marcus was taken to the hospital Sunday after neighbors found him in a crib in a Cortland Court apartment. Nearby was the body of his
mother, who was killed by asphyxiation sometime Thursday, according to Dr. Kristen Sweeney, a state medical examiner. The police would not say if Tammy Dickson had been strangled, but
they did say she was bound and gagged. There were no visible wounds. Residents of the Cortland Court apartments complex at 696 Westbrook St. were shocked by the slaying. Several said Tammy Dickson, who once worked as an exotic dancer at a Portland agency called “Fatal Attraction,” may have been too trusting of people.
Westbrook Junior High School became the Fred C. Wescott Junior High School Wednesday. The School Committee voted 6-1 to change the name, honoring the mayor who died of lung cancer December 29, 1994.
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