Westbrook City Councilor John O’Hara said he got into politics because he realized at some point if he was living in and taking from Westbrook, he needed to give back as well.

That point came when he was watching the Westbrook City Council on television and yelling at the screen. His wife, Judy, told him if he was going to keep yelling, he might as well go down there and speak. So he did, and it led to one of the most successful political careers in Westbrook in recent years.

O’Hara, who sometimes goes by the nickname “Johnny O,” first became a councilor in 1996. With the exception of the 1998 to 2000 term, he’s been on the council ever since and is the longest-tenured councilor. He’s also the most outspoken.

“John brings the most passion to the council of any one of its members,” said City Administrator Jerre Bryant. “You’re never in doubt on where John stands on an issue.”

It’s “refreshing,” said Mayor Bruce Chuluda. “While there may be those that sometimes disagree with his candor, his success in Westbrook politics is testimony to the fact that most people want to hear it like it is.”

Although he often dresses in a shirt and tie, his hands are rough to the touch and often bear stains from his work as facilities manager of the Portland airport. O’Hara said he is a “hands-on guy” and does “pick-and-shovel” work every day, digging holes and repairing and assembling machinery such as baggage belts in addition to his administrative work, so he knows how hard it is to get by.

He said he was once asked to describe himself in a job survey at the Portland Transportation and Waterfront Department, where he’s worked for 26 years in various capacities. On the survey, he described himself as a “risk-taker.”

Others agree. City Council President Brendan Rielly said O’Hara is “always trying and always coming up with ideas. He’s not afraid to take a risk and try something.”

Rielly said he respects that of O’Hara and enjoys working with him on the council. “You have to like anyone who can refer to himself in the third person as much as John does,” he said.

The value of a dollar

O’Hara said he learned the value of a dollar when he was a young man working in his grandfather’s bar. He was attending the University of Southern Maine for social work and had to drop out to help run the bar with his grandfather, who was sick at the time.

O’Hara said his grandfather was the person who taught him if he was going to live in this world, he needed to give back to it, as well. It’s because of this teaching that he said he always tries to help people.

O’Hara was raised by his mother, Barbara O’Hara, in Portland. His grandparents, Michael and Mary Cassale, who owned the 50-year Westbrook landmark Jack’s Bar, helped his mother raise him after his parents divorced when he was very young.

O’Hara graduated from Cheverus High School, where he ran track and played baseball and football. He went to work at a young age and was tending bar at his grandparents’ tavern when he was 17 years old.

When his grandfather died after he left USM, his grandmother thought he was too young to run a bar, so she leased it to his cousin, Joey Cassale, the then-mayor of Portland who’s claim to fame was bringing the “pooper-scooper” law to Portland. O’Hara went to work full-time with the city of Portland and has been there ever since.

Arthur Sewall, a friend who has worked with O’Hara for 17 years in Portland said he is a hardworking guy. “He’s just a good guy,” said Sewall. “He’s the salt of the Earth.”

“In this world, there are very few special people,” said Jason Snyder, whom O’Hara met and became friends with a couple years ago when dealing with zoning issues on Stroudwater Sreet where Snyder is a landowner. “He is one of those very special people.”

‘Field of dreams’

Two years after becoming councilor in 1996, O’Hara ran for mayor as an independent, losing to Don Esty. He sat out for one term and then ran for council again in 2002. He won an at-large position on the council as a Republican. He won again in 2004 and again in 2006.

O’Hara said he doesn’t have any plans to run for mayor again while Chuluda is in office, who he said is doing “80 percent of what (O’Hara) would probably do.” He said he would run for mayor again, though, if the situation were right.

O’Hara said he moved to Westbrook as an adult after working here as a young man and loves the city. He said he feels very fortunate to live here because it’s a good community. He wants to see it grow and overcome the growing pains it’s undergoing during its transition from “a small town with headaches to a small city with headaches.”

“Build it, and they will come,” he said. “This city is my ‘Field of Dreams.'”

One indication of his dedication to the city is the home in which he and his family live and in which the O’Hara’s were married in 1987. Designed by John Calvin Stevens in 1882 and owned by John E. Warren, the home is a community asset, according to O’Hara. Cited in the National Historical Register and considered one of the finest examples of the Queen Anne style, O’Hara said he and his wife work tirelessly to restore it to its original condition. One of the couple’s favorite activities is going to estate auctions and finding antique gems to fill the rooms with and make it look the way it used to.

O’Hara bought the home in 1987 from the late Malcolm Kimball on two conditions, both of which the O’Haras have kept. One condition was that they leave Kimball’s picture on the wall where it hung, which they have. The second condition was that Kimball could live in the home for the remainder of his years, which he did until his death several years later.

O’Hara said neither he nor Judy knew Kimball, a divorcee, or his three children before letting them live there. At the time, Kimball was in his 50s and his children were in their teens and younger. O’Hara said it was a unique arrangement, but there was something about Kimball’s great love for the home that made O’Hara agree. He said Kimball passed away suddenly after a few years, but they otherwise would have all lived there indefinitely.

“I know that may sound odd, but I made a promise and I kept it,” O’Hara said. “I could see that love for the house (in Kimball), and I didn’t want to disrupt that in his life.”

‘It’s on the list’

The O’Haras now live in the Victorian home with their three children – John, 11; Molly, 13; Kathryn, 14 – and their black lab, Luke. The house is old, but according to the O’Hara’s, it’s not devoid of life. The family laughs together a lot. O’Hara said he always tries to find some humor in anything, even the bad things.

One of the family’s jokes is the list of things that constantly needs to be done on the old home. “It’s on the list,” O’Hara said of a light fixture broken in a side room.

A few minutes earlier before O’Hara mentioned the light fixture, Molly O’Hara had entered the room to get something and had asked why the door was closed. “Oh, why’s this door closed? Because this room is trashed?” she said sarcastically.

O’Hara said of a broken step out front that has a hole in the concrete, “It’s on the list, but I have to wait until the hole gets bigger.”

“If you know any good maintenance men…” joked his wife.

The family went on a month-long cross-country trip a couple years ago, and Molly O’Hara said they would travel 600 miles in a day and stop at several sites. Looking through the pictures, people would wonder why they were wearing the same clothes everywhere. She said she had a green shirt she could look at and know which state they were in based on the food stains on the front.

She said the favorite thing she saw during the fast-paced trip was “my house again.”

“Laughter is the best medicine,” said her mother.

Of her father, Kathryn O’Hara said he is strict but funny and a character. “I’m telling you, the man is nuts sometimes,” she said.

His son, John O’Hara, agreed his father can be strict at times, but, he said, “He’s really funny just like my two sisters. He can keep us entertained.”

Young John O’Hara said he’s interested in politics like his father, although his sisters aren’t so sure they’d like to follow in their father’s footsteps. Kathryn helps at a soup kitchen once a month with her dad, and O’Hara makes sure each child makes donations to the food pantry in Westbrook.

O’Hara said he and his wife split the duties of parenting on opposite schedules. He works days and his wife works nights, so Judy O’Hara gets them off to school in the morning and he gets them to bed at night. After he gets home from work, he makes the kids’ dinner but doesn’t eat with them. Instead, he waits for his wife to get home at around midnight from her night shift as a nurse. They have a little bite to eat together and then go to bed.

O’Hara said he and his wife’s opposite work schedules can be difficult, but they have a good reason for it. He said it has allowed them to raise their kids at home instead of at day care, which was a priority for them.

“It’s nice,” said Judy O’Hara. “They’ve always gone to bed with a parent and always woken up with a parent.”