April 1980

The South Portland City Council is concerned about pension costs. For every $100 the city spends for payroll, pensions cost another $34.81 (city $23.68, employee $11.13). The employees are covered by both Social Security and the Maine State Retirement System.

Summer vacation will start a week early in area schools. They scheduled five to seven storm days but have used only one. Westbrook schools, scheduled to run through June 18, will close June 12.

Twenty-five Windham Junior High School students, mostly ninth-graders, were suspended 10 days after they walked out in protest against rules. They said they want more bathroom, phone and smoking privileges, and to be treated like high school, not junior high school, students.

Jack Hayes, a teacher in South Portland’s Skillin School, has classes for fifth- and sixth-graders in the Arabic and Chinese languages.

After the American Journal’s Tim Allen brought to public attention that the South Portland City Council planned a two-day (overnight) working meeting at a private home on Chebeague Island, the Council abandoned the plan.

Westbrook City Assessor Robert Libby said he is increasing land values 30 percent and building values and personal property values 20 percent. The tax rate will come down and tax bills should not change much, he said. The Assessment Review Board elected these officers: Gary Quirk, chairman; Nelson Castle, vice chairman; Alexander Landry, secretary.

Ballard Oil Co. is advertising that you should put your tax refund in your basement – in a more efficient oil burner.

Gorham’s new elementary school will have some solar panels to heat hot water, as an educational demonstration project.

William Rust, Priscilla Rines and Richard McKeil have been re-appointed for three year terms on the Gorham Planning Board.

The Baha’is are meeting each Tuesday evening at the O’Brien Trailer Park, Cressey Road, Gorham.

Windham may give teachers (men too) time off without pay to care for a baby.

Scarborough High School’s track team always has been the visiting team. This year it will have its own track. The track surrounds the new SHS hockey field.

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sweatt and daughter Patricia, Portland Farms Road, Scarborough, are back from California. They attended a nephew’s wedding; visited a college friend of Patricia in Claremont; had a day at the San Diego Zoo, and saw the Wayne Newton and Diane Warwick shows in Las Vegas.

Marilyn Kennie and Susan Grondin are helping organize the Westbrook Together Festival ’80, an all-Westbrook fun day June 21 in Riverbank Park.

The Twin Falls Golf Club, Westbrook will open for the season April 12.

April 1990

Regional Waste Systems and the Dravo Corporation, Pittsburgh, are back in court. Dravo built the RWS trash burner in 1985 on Blueberry Road, Portland. After disputes, the two settled on a price of $6 million. But after paying $3.8 million, RWS is balking. It says it will cost several hundred thousand dollars to hire someone else to do technical drawings it needs to run the plant. Dravo is suing for immediate payment of $1 million.

Standish Town Manager Suzanne Kennedy expects an 18 percent increase in the next budget, including the town’s share of costs of School Administrative District 6.

An American Journal photo shows a water-filled section of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal off Stroudwater Street, Westbrook, looking today such as it must have looked when last used in 1870, except that towpaths are overgrown.

Hannaford Brothers Company plans to move out of its Windham Mall store and build a 63,500-square-foot store on the other side of Route 302 on land now owned by Frances Manchester.

The city of Westbrook is endorsing the application of PrecisMetals Inc., for a $100,000 state loan to help it buy and run the cabinet-making part of Data General.

Westbrook may cut summer school, a $25,000 expense, from its budget.

Billy the Bunny will be on hand for the season opening Sunday of Sweets’n’Eats, 680 Gray Road, Gorham.

Westbrook will hold Clean-up Week April 23-27, with a limit of one truckload per house.

The woman employee of the State Bureau of Health who handed out condoms to eighth-graders in Gorham’s Shaw Junior High School has been moved out of the city office in Portland where she has worked since 1985. A Portland city official said there were other factors in addition to the condoms, which have caused a stir.

Gorham High School’s debate team won nine trophies in the state debating team championship at Lewiston.

By 2000, over three million short tons a year of used newspapers will be recycled in New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which is being planned by the Northeast Recycling Council.

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