Cape Elizabeth Police Officer Mark Dorval was driving on Shore Road late one night in early June when he spotted several large dark objects blocking the road. He swerved and nearly hit them.

When he got out of his car, he found 10 rocks that had been removed from a wall at a Delano Park entrance. The largest rock weighed 120 pounds. Police believe the rocks were laid across the road by teenagers and could have killed someone if police hadn’t discovered them first.

The rocks were just one example of what police and Town Manager Mike McGovern say has been a problem in Cape this summer: teenagers partying and vandalizing. Cape teenagers say they’re not always to blame; kids from other communities sometimes do the vandalism. They also complain they have nothing to do in town, and police spend most of their time chasing after them.

Despite still having some concerns regarding traffic, how many acres of open space would be needed to offset such dense development and how to get around the town’s growth ordinance, Scarborough Town Councilors Wednesday agreed to let the Great American Neighborhood go ahead to the Planning Board for site plan review.

The Great American Neighborhood, being proposed for 150 acres in Dunstan, has been touted as anti-sprawl development, because the combination of single family homes, condominiums, row houses and apartments would be built on smaller lots, surrounded by landscaped interconnecting streets with open spaces and walking trails.

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Bob Snow died in the 1996 flood when his truck washed out with a bridge on Blue Point Road. But the boat he once used to haul lobster traps is still moored in the Scarborough River. His buoy colors still float in the Saco Bay. And hundreds of lobster traps bearing his name still sit on the ocean floor.

His brother, Steve Snow, now drives his younger brother’s old boat, The Three Sisters. Every lobsterman at Pine Point has different colors painted on the buoys that mark their traps. Steve has taken his brother’s colors, orange and white. Although he has his own tags for up to 800 traps, he uses his brother’s.

Although earning a Purple Heart was Bob Neely’s proudest accomplishment in life, until a few years ago he rarely spoke about it.

Neely, a Cape Elizabeth resident, was shot in Vietnam. But for most of his life, he talked about the medal and his experience in the war with only a few close friends. He wasn’t comfortable talking about it with most people.

Neely and other Maine veterans joined veterans from around the country this week at the Military Order of the Purple Heart National Convention in South Portland.

According to Scarborough’s Linwood Dyer, there are thousands of Dyers along the Eastern Seaboard, from Cape Cod to Cape Elizabeth and up to Vinalhaven Island. Most of these folks are descendents of one Dr. William Dyer and his wife, who came to Cape Elizabeth from Barnstable, Mass., and originally from England.

D r. Dyer and his wife had eight children, who all settled in Cape Elizabeth near and around Sawyer Road and what was then known as Town House Corner. This area is now a part of South Portland, becoming a part of that city when Cape and South Portland split ways in 1895.

Linwood is one of the last remaining direct descendents of the William Dyer family in this area, but during the family’s heyday in Cape Elizabeth, the Dyers were not only farmers, shipbuilders, soldiers and sea captains, they were also active and involved members of the community.

Putting a sewer line down the Haigis Parkway is going to cost the town almost $3 million more than anticipated, according to a sewer engineering report presented to the Scarborough Town Council at a workshop last week.

According to Sanitary District Superintendent Michael Farmer, there are three reasons why the figure is $2.9 million higher than previously thought. One factor is that the town had originally considered sewering the parkway in two phases and now wishes to accomplish the sewer construction in one. A second factor is that only making improvements to two existing pump stations will not provide enough pressure to the sewer lines and therefore a new pump station will have to be built on the parkway itself. The third factor is inflation.

As Elsie Raymond found out when she met U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a little flattery never hurts.

“You’re much more handsome than you are on ‘Meet the Press,’” said Raymond, a nurse at the Maine Veterans’ Home in Scarborough. Her remark earned her a hug from the former candidate for vice president. Lieberman came to Scarborough Monday afternoon to help U.S. Rep. John Baldacci campaign for governor.

He came to Maine to campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Chellie Pingree, who is running against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. He’s also considering a run for president, but hasn’t yet decided.

Defying state budget cuts and legislative criticism, delivery truck drivers dropped off precious cargo at middle schools across Maine in the past week. The word raced down school hallways and into administrative offices, quiet with students home for summer: Laptops!

Indeed, contrary to the wishes of some state legislators and fulfilling the dreams of middle school teachers and administrators, 160 Macintosh iBook laptop computers arrived at Cape Elizabeth Middle School Aug. 13, according to Gary Lanoie, the district technology coordinator. “We’re very excited,” said Principal Nancy Hutton.

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.

Steve Snow pulls a lobster trap out of the water in this photo from the Aug. 22, 2002 issue of The Current.   
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