(Editor’s note: Looking Back is a new weekly column including news items reported 10 years ago in The Current, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.)

Issue of Nov. 21, 2001

Although plans for the new development on the Scarborough Downs property may be six months away, developers and local officials agree they likely will include a big-box retailer. They also agree Wal-Mart is the leading candidate.

Wal-Mart has been trying to escape the confines of its building on Payne Road, having outgrown its space on the busy highway. Company officials have met with a developer and a local landowner in an attempt to find room to grow.

Bill Faulkingham owns land next to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart officials approached him about potentially buying or leasing his land. But when the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement, Faulkingham leased his land to Bob’s Discount.

Wal-Mart also attempted to negotiate with Eugene Beaudoin, a developer who had planned to lease the Scarborough Downs land before Eastern Development secured the lease.

Scarborough town councilors are interested in development plans for 400 acres at Scarborough Downs. Some don’t see the need for another big-box retail development and others just want to make sure that whatever goes in is “quality.”

Although Eastern Development principal Brian Kelly, who has a lease at Scarborough Downs, is not yet saying what will be built there, another developer who had plans for the land talked with Wal-Mart. After a meeting with Kelly and others earlier this month, Town Manager Ron Owens admitted that the project would likely need to include a big-box retail store to be commercially viable.

Councilor Sue Foley-Ferguson said, “I am not a huge fan of big boxes. I don’t necessarily see the need for another one. If I lived in a town without them, I wouldn’t miss them.” However, Foley-Ferguson said that she would not be totally against such a development as long as there was a balance between retail and other uses.

Russ Adams was about to drive away. But what he had to say was so important that he put his car in reverse and drove onto Bud Nelsen’s lawn.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t play music, but work like hell for the association,” said Adams. “This guy does the best he can.”

Before driving away, Adams, a country singer from South Portland, reached his hand out of his car and shook the hand of Bud Nelsen, the Scarborough resident who cares for the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame in his backyard. Both men are members of the Maine Country Music Association.

The association has been ferreting away money from membership fees and award shows, hoping to raise enough money to buy some land and a permanent building for the hall of fame.

The Rotary Club of Scarborough recently honored 13 of Scarborough’s youth at a breakfast meeting at the Black Point Inn for their participation in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference held this past summer.

RYLA graduates from the year 2001 were: Alyssa Brackett, Heather Christy, Becky Condon, Crystal Deering, Marcus Ellison, Michael Ellison, Emily Kipp, Mike Mack, Jill Macomber, Morgan O’Halloran and Kevin Paul. Sarah Bukingham, and Pennie Taylor were RYLA Facilitators in 2001 and RYLArians in 2000.

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