(Editor’s note: Looking Back is a weekly column including news items reported 10 years ago in The Current, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in September 2011.)

Issue of Feb. 28, 2002

Old habits, like sports writing, die hard. At 90 years old, Tom Shehan still can’t shed the habits of a lifetime of sports writing. He stopped writing four or five years ago. But a typewriter still sits on the table in his study. He still reads several newspapers every day.

“I never ran out of my enthusiasm. You can see it in my face,” said Shehan. “I just ran out ofenergy.”

Shehan wrote about sports all his life. His specialty, horse racing, eventually segued into a career in racing track management. He managed six tracks, including, for many years, Scarborough Downs.

A small horse adorns the mailbox in front of his home in Scarborough. The door reads “racing consultant.” When it is time to run the Preakness, local sports columnists turn to Shehan. As video gambling at Scarborough Downs has been making headlines, the Current turned to Shehan and his 90 years of following the ponies for some perspective.

The Scarborough Town Council likely will hold at least one more public hearing on the question of whether video and casino gambling should be banned in town. A poll of the councilors taken by the Current shows the board has not made up its mind on the issue.

The measure would directly affect the Scarborough Downs racetrack, which is behind an effort to change state law through a referendum to allow video gambling. Councilors are considering a local ban in case the state referendum is passed next year.

an extra two days off this past week, and though the teachers had to work, they had a luxury too: professional development time.

The district has set aside five days from this school year for teacher development work. Two were in November, before Thanksgiving vacation, two were last week, extending February vacation, and one will follow spring break in April.

In the two-day sessions, the first day is filled with district-related work, primarily curriculum mapping and organization.

The second day is a “building day,” when teachers in the separate schools can work in small groups or independently on their own, on projects relating to professional development.

The district work this year is called “curriculum mapping,” drawing up a detailed picture of what material teachers cover, and when they do it. The idea is to get a full report of what students are learning, and when. It lays the groundwork for future plans, including curriculum changes and new standardized tests or other assessment methods.

The Scarborough Board of Education unveiled this week a proposed $21,998,240 school budget for next year, which is 8.62 percent more than this year’s total. The impact on the tax rate would be an increase of 42 cents per thousand.

That figure doesn’t include any town-related spending requests for next year ’s budget. The current tax rate is $15.30 per thousand.

Under the proposed school budget, operating costs for the schools have increased by $1,746,424. Scarborough is expected to receive an additional $398,301 from non-tax revenue sources in 2003, leaving an additional $1,348,123 to be raised from property taxes.

The center of North Scarborough is located at the corner of Saco Street and County Road.

But, according to life-long resident Barbara Griffin, the land area of North Scarborough village stretches from the Gorham line, over to Westbrook, and the Smiling Hill Farm, and out to Scarborough Corner, which is where Scarborough borders on the town of Buxton.

This vast area includes the intersection of Routes 22 and 114, where the North Scarborough School used to stand. The school, a one-room schoolhouse, was used from 1875 until it closed in 1958. Students were then bussed to the more modern and newly constructed Eight Corners School. Griffin can still remember the arguments over closing the North Scarborough School, but said the town was consistently closing the more rural schools, including the Beech Ridge School, which was also located in North Scarborough.

The Cape Elizabeth School Board is ready to fight the Town Council to keep its budget. While an all-day workshop scheduled for this Saturday, March 2, could change the 2002-2003 budget total, at press time the proposed budget stood at $15,091,234 – a 5.7 percent increase over this year’s, or an addition of $815,583.

That equals an additional $1.27 per thousand on the tax rate, or an estimated $250 on a home valued at $200,000. The current town rate is $21.70.

At a budget workshop Tuesday night, board members characterized their request as “conservative” and “responsible,” and suggested that town spending be cut in other areas.

“If the Town Council is really serious about cutting the budget, maybe they would consider giving back their salaries,” said board member Jennifer DeSena. Each councilor gets $350 a year, plus Social Security, according to Town Manager Michael McGovern, making the total annual cost to the town $2,637 for the seven councilors.

In 1962, six enterprising businessmen from South Portland and Cape Elizabeth got together to form the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Rotary Club. In January the club celebrated its 40th anniversary with a visit by Rotary International World President Richard D. King.

Warren Simpson and Richard Kilroy, both of Cape Elizabeth, were honored not only as charter members of the club, but also for having perfect attendance at a Rotary meeting somewhere for the past 40 years. Kilroy, who winters in Florida, was honored by King while King was on a trip to Tampa.