(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 Aug. 8, 2002

A fuel truck spilled 3,500 gallons of gasoline in a Pleasant Hill Road parking lot just before 7 a.m., Aug. 6, briefly threatening the Nonesuch River and the Scarborough Marsh. But quick work by a crew from Maietta Construction kept the spill from spreading very far.

At 6:42 a.m., the Scarborough Fire Department got a call that a tanker truck had hit a pillar protecting fuel valves and had sprung a leak.

The truck, owned by Abenaqui Carriers of Windham, was carrying both diesel fuel and gasoline, and had just finished making a diesel delivery to the Penske truck leasing business on Pleasant Hill Road.

As it was pulling away, the truck hit a concrete pillar, damaging the discharge manifold the truck uses to dispense fuel, according to Fire Chief Michael Thurlow.

A rabid fox bit a 2-1/2 year old girl Tuesday at a day-care center in Cape Elizabeth.

Just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, a fox ran from a brushy area 20 feet from Funny Farm Daycare on Old Ocean House Road. Ten children were playing in the driveway, supervised by two adults. The fox ran directly to the group and bit the girl on her arm, breaking the skin. The fox then ran back into the underbrush between the day-care and the yard next door.

Cape Elizabeth Rescue responded and transported the child to a Portland hospital.

According to the day-care owner, she was treated and released from the hospital and is now home with her family. Two day-care teachers, who may have been exposed to fox saliva, also are being treated.

Supporters of the harness racing industry are abandoning a referendum that would bring video gambling machines to harness racing tracks, but they’re not giving up.

Harness racing supporters plan to bring a new bill to the Legislature in December that will increase the money that would go to towns where the tracks are located, as a response to criticism the previous referendum received from the Scarborough Town Council.

“When the Scarborough Town Council speaks, we listen,” said Bob Tardy, a lobbyist for the harness racing industry.

“It’s never been about the money,” said Councilor Mark Maroon, who led the effort to ban gambling. “It’s been about the soul of Scarborough. It’s frustrating they don’t understand that.”

Despite strong opposition from hunters back in January, it looks like the Scarborough firearms ordinance could change, tightening the rules governing hunting in town.

A proposal put forth by the town’s Firing Range Committee would require hunters to get the express written permission of landowners before being allowed to hunt on any land in Scarborough.

This change puts the burden on hunters to make sure they have permission to hunt in an area before going out into the woods, even if the land is not posted with “no hunting” or “no trespassing” signs.

On John and Florence Brown’s 56th wedding anniversary, they skipped out on a party their children were going to throw for them and went to see President George Bush at the Black Point Inn.

“They said, ‘mom, we were going to give you a party,’” said Florence Brown. Despite her children’s protests, Florence would have the last word on the subject. “I said ‘I’m seeing Bush.’”

The Browns were two of about 600 people who paid $250 to see Bush Saturday at a fund-raiser for Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They also got a surprise guest, former President George H.W. Bush, who stood next to Collins as his son delivered a speech that didn’t disappoint the crowd packed under the tents.

Supporters of President George W. Bush and those critical of his policies lined Black Point Road Aug. 3, hoping to catch a glimpse of the president and show their feelings.

The largest group was between 60 and 80 protesters of all ages, organized by Peace Action Maine and the Maine chapter of Veterans for Peace. The main theme was “no new war in Iraq,” according to Greg Field, the executive director of Peace Action Maine.

“The administration is clearly moving towards war,” Field said. He urged the government to seek other alternatives to economic sanctions and bombing. “Support for the people of Iraq is not support for Saddam Hussein,” Field said.

Norman Berube Builders Inc. was before the Scarborough Planning Board Monday seeking sketch plan review of a proposed 59 single-family-home housing development off Hunnewell Road on the north end of Route 1. The subdivision is being called Logan’s Overlook and borders the Nonesuch River.

The project would be built on 66 acres of land near the current Windward subdivision. According to a spokesperson for Berube, each house is expected to sell for around $300,000.

Participants in the 1K “Young Peoples Run” for kids 12 and under at the Beach to Beacon in Cape Elizabeth take off from the starting line in this photo from the Aug. 8, 2002 edition of The Current. (File photo)