Feb. 24, 1988

The sharp criticisms leveled by Gorham parents last week against drug-free rules for high school sports team members appear to underscore a much wider community perception that things aren’t going quite right at the high school, School Committee Chairman Karen Alden said. “It appears to me there is a lot of concern in the community about the high school in general,” she said. She suggested that one of the ways to deal with this would be to convene a task force “to dig into some of the issues that have been raised.” Another option might be to hold further workshops and public hearings to solicit comments on the issues raised about the high school.

Westbrook’s City Council wants to sit down with the Gorham Town Council to talk highways. Aldermen reached that conclusion this week as they voted to oppose the proposed 6A route for a westward extension of the Maine Turnpike, and to say that they “strongly” oppose it. Alderman Kenneth Lefebvre pushed for the meeting with Gorham. “It may be appropriate to try to come to a consensus on the route. It’s going to affect both of our towns severely. If Westbrook and Gorham can speak with one voice, we may speak a little more loudly than what’s happening right now,” he said. Route 6A would slice across the middle of Westbrook, including the farms of Llewellyn Randall and City Clerk Bill Clarke, and then swerve north of Gorham.

Georgette Brushwein, longtime secretary to Westbrook’s assessor, has given notice that she is retiring. She is to be the guest of honor at a dinner Feb. 25. Aldermen have asked the Personnel Committee to study the job before the city replaces her.

The contents of the collection plate from Sunday morning’s early service at Gorham’s First Parish Church at South Street were stolen sometime during the second service. Gorham Police Lt. Ron Shepard said Stan Williams had collected around $50 at the early service and then placed it in a locked file cabinet in the secretary’s office. The keys were apparently left on the desk in the nearby minister’s office. While the second service was going on, two high school students, who were working on a poster on the Parables, said they saw a tall, thin man with dark hair in the hallway. He asked where the ministers were, and when he was told they were at the second service, he said he’d wait. After the second service, Williams brought the second collection plate down into the office and noticed the money from the first service was missing.

Gorham Police Chief David Kurz is well on his way to achieving the 23-pound weight loss goal that he must meet before he attends an 11-week FBI Police Academy in early April. “I’ve lost 18 pounds,” he reported Friday. He said that he has been going to Weight Watchers and has also been running twice a day. “At first I was just running to the refrigerator, but now I’m running one and a half miles twice a day,” he said.

The Westbrook City Council quietly gave first-reading approval this week for sending six councilors to Washington at a total cost of $5,628. Those who will go to the spring meeting of the National League of Cities are Mayor Philip Spiller; his administrative assistant, Marti Blair; Council President Donald Esty; and Aldermen Terry Quinlan, Fred Wescott and Alexander Juniewicz.

Feb. 25, 1998

The Westbrook City Council and Mayor Donald Esty voted unanimously this week against the renewal of Fogg’s Family Tavern’s state liquor license. The vote followed extensive reports by staff lawyer Richard Sullivan, Police Chief Steven Roberts, Police Capt. Michael Lambert and Patrolmen Alan Twombley and Michael Brown. Fogg’s license will expire Feb. 28. Terri Lynn Beckwith of Windham, a proprietor, said she will appeal to the Maine Liquor Enforcement Bureau to keep the license.

The $400,000 construction project at Westbrook police headquarters that will end in a new combined dispatch center for Westbrook’s police, fire and rescue departments began in earnest this week with a single sledgehammer blow by Police Chief Steven Roberts. His hammer began the demolition of partitions needed to make the new center, which will include new computers, software and radio transmission systems. The center will open around May 1.

The S.D. Warren Co. and its owner, Sappi, aren’t happy with the value the city of Westbrook places on its Westbrook properties for determining property taxes. Warren is having a new appraisal done. On Monday, the City Council gave final approval to paying up to $40,000 to have a city representative watch that process. Steven Traub of Property Valuation Advisors would perform a “peer review” appraisal of the Warren paper mill and biomass power plant, overseeing their detailed appraisal. Warren’s value totaled around $270 million when it was last appraised. The company paid almost $5.3 million in taxes to the city of Westbrook for the 1996-97 year, and is scheduled to pay over $6.5 million for 1997-98, almost a third of the entire tax base for the city.

Neighbors told the Portland Water District trustees where they could put the sludge from Westbrook’s sewage treatment plant intended for fields of the Wormell dairy farm on Brook Street and Pride Street – someplace else. Among the opponents in the packed meeting room at the water district office were Westbrook School Superintendent Robert Hall and former alderman Alexander Juniewicz. Hall was concerned about the proximity of the sludge to the Prides Corner School, which, he said, is just 15 feet from the line of one of the spreading fields.

Keith Gorman was elected chairman of the Westbrook Democratic Committee at the caucus on Feb.8.

The Westbrook City Council gave initial approval this week for the police department to buy two new cruisers and a new motorcycle and a combined cost of $43,835. The two cruisers, Ford Crown Victorias costing $20,383 each, will be purchased from Casco Bay Ford in Yarmouth. The new motorcycle is a Harley Davidson Electra-Glide. It will be purchased from Big Moose Harley Davidson at a cost of $13,169.

Gorham High School’s Lady Rams wanted revenge Friday night for their opening season loss to Greely’s Lady Rangers, who had gone onto the the No. 1 ranking in the Class B Western Region. But their hopes were crushed as the Rangers handily won the Western Class B championship game at the Augusta Civic Center, 48-26. In Westbrook, the Lady Blazes easily coasted over Catherine McAuley in their last game before the Class A basketball tournament playoffs, stomping over the Lions with an expected wide margin, 72-39. The undefeated Blazes sit atop the Class A rankings as the No. 1 seed in the Western region.

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