Sept. 26, 1990

If you grew up in Westbrook, chances are you swam in it, fished in it or rowed your homemade raft in it. Spring-fed Beaver Pond used to be a bonafide swimming hole, complete with swings, docks and floats. That was 20 or 30 years ago. Now, no one swims in it and the site is strewn with litter. But resident John Mikolay, 25, has organized a Beaver Pond clean-up day, set for Oct.14.

Rich Tool and Die is moving from South Windham to the Gorham Industrial Park, where it has purchased 7.5 acres and will construct a 50,000-square-foot building in spring 1992, according to George Merkle, company chairman and CEO. “Our present building is inefficient and lacks space,” Merkle said Tuesday. The company was established in Westbrook in 1960. It purchased the South Windham building from the Hudson Pulp and Paper Co. four years later, Merkle said.

A packed junior high gym rocked with applause and then erupted in happy chatter as the Westbrook City Council voted 4-3 Monday to adopt a rent control ordinance requested by residents of The Hamlet mobile home park. It’s the first time ever in the state that a municipality has agreed to enforce rent control over a mobile home park. Under the ordinance, Mayor Fred Wescott will appoint three persons who will review any increase in rents in The Hamlet, and can reject them for cause. Michael Liberty, principal owner of The Hamlet, said he won’t opposed the rent control ordinance in court.

Maine Gov. John McKernan paid an unscheduled visit to downtown Westbrook Wednesday, to the delight of City Clerk Bill Clarke and City Administrator Peter Eckel. Clarke led McKernan and his entourage on a tour of downtown businesses before the governor headed off for a noon luncheon with the Windham Chamber of Commerce. It’s all part of a campaign swing McKernan is making through parts of Cumberland County, explained his field director, Cheryl Leeman.

Aldermen will face a final decision Oct. 1 on whether to spend $6,000 of Westbrook’s money to help make sure that this winter, fire trucks and ambulances can get to 10 expensive homes off Brook Street. Developer Mike Holiday’s All-Day Development Co. developed the area but pulled out and turned the development, including another 10 house lots, over to Maine Savings Bank. The street he built, Lunt Drive, never has been accepted by the city and now is in such bad shape that it could suddenly collapse, said Donald Mannett, city engineering director.

Sept. 27, 2000

Featured speaker at the Westbrook Chamber of Commerce’s Business at Breakfast meeting Sept. 29 will be Wolcott “Bill” Gaines, the developer of the proposed Shops at Prides Corner shopping center. A zone change that will permit Gaines’ proposed shopping center drew significant Prides Corner opposition this summer. Gaines, a Windham resident, will be the main speaker, though city officials are expected at the breakfast as guests.

A new Gorham Middle School is taking a more vivid shape as the School Building Committee and architect Lyndon Keck unveiled a clearer picture of the school, now on the state’s priority list for funding. It is one of four in the state placed on an accelerated agenda, preserving hopes that the school will be open for business for the 2003-04 school year. The new school is expected to cost $20 million. The school will have larger than average classrooms, a television studio, computer lab, several music rooms and a small auditorium and stage to seat 250 people. The site for the new school was not released, but the building committee is close to making an announcement.

Workers from R.J. Grondin Construction this week started the first construction work toward the future Maine Turnpike Exit 8, at the S-curves of the Westbrook Arterial. The exit is set to open by summer 2002.

Lt. Wayne Coffin took the reins of the Gorham Police Department Friday and will hold the fort until Chief Ronald Shepard completes an FBI course at Quantico, Va., Dec. 8. Shepard, a 29-year veteran of the Gorham Police Department, has served as chief since 1996.

For the better part of the past 15 years, Lloyd Leighton has tended to the flowers in downtown Westbrook. Now he’ll be tending his roses at home – and traveling. Leighton retied recently from his job at the Parks and Recreation Department at the age of 84. He was honored Monday at a special ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery. Mayor Donald Esty Jr. presented Leighton with a commemorative plaque and clock, praising him for his years of dedicated service. Leighton and his wife of 21 years, Irene, are ardent travelers and plan on taking advantage of his retirement to continue visiting new places.

Westbrook’s City Council will likely vote Oct. 2 to set a public hearing at its Oct. 23 meeting on a contract zoning plan to permit building condominium houses on the former Donald Brydon farmland at Route 302 and Pride Street.

This building at 872-874 Main St. was constructed in 1844 by Dana Brigham and was for many years known as the Brigham Block. The building was brick and was 3½ stories with a pitched roof. The top floor was used from 1873 to 1879 as a chapel to serve members of St. Hyacinth Parish until a new church was constructed on Brown Street. The photo shows the building with its newer mortar facing. When this photo was taken the building was owned by the Porell family and the first floor tenants were Porell’s Westbrook Remnant Store and The Men’s Shop. A fire of undetermined origin swept through the building on Jan. 8, 1978, one day before its slated demolition by urban renewal. CVS Pharmacy occupies the site. To see more historical photos and artifacts, visit the Westbrook Historical Society at the Fred C. Wescott Building, 426 Bridge St. It is open Tuesdays and Saturdays, 9 a.m.-noon, and the first Wednesday of each month at 1:30 p.m., September-June. Inquiries can be emailed to westhistorical@myfairpoint.net. The website is www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org.Photo and research courtesy of Mike Sanphy

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