June 1980

A new city-wide festival, Westbrook Together Day, drew several thousand people to Riverbank Park and other locations. Nancy Kelson was chairman. It was a project of the Community Improvement Committee of the Westbrook Woman’s Club. Unlike many summer festivals, it wasn’t designed to make money for anybody; total general expense, about $600, was contributed by the Woman’s Club and others. The date was chosen months ago as the Saturday after schools close. There is strong sentiment for a repeat next year. An American Journal editorial says “The Woman’s Club sparked a party that outshone any the city has seen in many a year.”

Ronald Usher was parade organizer and master of ceremonies for entertainment. In a 14-stanza poem, Vera Quinn, the Woman’s Club president, thanks all who contributed.

Richard Simpson credits his cat “Blackie” with saving his life. The cat jumped on him and cried, waking him up at 3 a.m. when fire broke out in his mobile home in Friendly village, Gorham.

Scott Paper Co. is buying a three-year old paper mill in Salamanca, Spain.

The South Portland Housing Authority, criticized for taking properties off tax rolls, answers that in eight months it has bought $297,245 in goods and services in South Portland and is paying a dozen South Portland employees $126,400.

A federal grant of $70,000 for the Spring Point Shoreway greenbelt project will be matched by the city of South Portland with $50,000 to be borrowed and $20,000 left from last year’s federal grant.

The Baxter House and Museum, South Street, Gorham, will be open Wednesdays and Saturdays through July and August.

Baxter Memorial Library, Gorham, is opening its new children’s room in the basement.

Summer buses to Crescent Beach from Portland and South Portland started Monday and will continue through Aug. 16, with three round trips a day.

Kerry Kreiton, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Kreiton, a sophomore in Gorham High School, has been chosen to attend the International Youth Leadership seminar, led by Hugh O’Brien, in Los Angeles July 5 through 12.

The Rev. Douglas L. Clark has been chosen as new pastor of the Standish Congregational Church.

The Maine Medical Association has presented 50-year medical service pins to Thor Miller, M.D., Westbrook, and Roderick L. Huntress, M.D., North Windham.

Paul Banks, a Gorham High School junior, won last week both the Maine Interscholastic Golf Championship and the Maine Juniors Golf Championship.

A retirement dinner and dance at the Elks Club, with 118 attending, honored Elizabeth McAleney and Virginia Stevens of the Portland Public Library.

June 1990

Mayor Fred Wescott said a manufacturer may move to Westbrook. It employs 150 and is growing, using new technology. It is said to be considering part of the Data General building.

Paul Poore, 37, of 85 Brown St., Westbrook, is in serious condition after he was thrown as much as 15 feet in the air over a car he hit on Route 302, Windham, while riding a motorcycle.

Three Massachusetts men have bought the 12-year-old Windham Mall for $3.75 million from Maine Savings Bank, which foreclosed on its $8.8 million mortgage loan to the David G. Hills Development Corporation. Hills paid $7.6 million in 1988 to the MacBride group, which bought it in 1987 from its builders, Canada’s Rocca Group, for $3.2 million.

Hurting for money, the Council of Governments is laying off six of its 43 employees.

Members of the Westbrook United Methodist Church voted, 30-24, to plan for a new church at a site to be chosen. The Rev. George Abosamra is the present pastor.

A huge majority, estimated at 351-15, voted against the town budget in Standish’s town meeting Saturday. Now it’s up to Town Manager Suzanne Kennedy and the Town Council to put together a budget that voters will accept.

John H. Rich Jr., Cape Elizabeth, in an American Journal column, describes the start of the Korean War 40 years ago, which he covered as an NBC correspondent, and describes the emergence of South Korea as an independent power.

South Portland will have an updated indexed city history by this time next year, reports Bill Alexander, director of the South Portland Public Library. Volunteers are updating the 1971 booklet, “South Portland, All-American City.”

Stanley Cohen, Gorham schools’ business manager, is moving to a similar job at Bridgton Academy.

In South Portland, Martin Gouzie reported that someone tried to pry open the hood and trunk of his 1987 Cadillac.

Mr. and Mrs. Weston Mason, High and Cliff Road, Windham, are back from Armour, S.D., where they visited relatives and were charmed by the Doll Museum.

South Portland’s City Council favors spending $3 million to enlarge and improve Skillin School, instead of the $7.2 million the School Department wants.

John Diefenbacker-Krall, Standish, is a new member of the Mackworth Island Public Trust Advisory Board.

Scarborough High School’s 1990 yearbook is dedicated to Gary Jacobsen, who for two years has been a day-long “volunteer friend” to students though confined to a wheelchair by a diving accident.

Bishop Panteleimon, 49, and Rev. Pavel Feer, 30, of the Russian Orthodox Church, were house guests last week of Dana and Jean Childs, Westbrook. They are from Archangel, Russia, the Greater Portland Sister City.

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