June 19, 1991

Westbrook police are investigating a scam involving the theft of around $150 in items donated by businesses for the auction at Westbrook Together Days. Bruce Avery, Together Days committee spokesman, said a woman in her mid 30s and two men went to several local businesses in the weeks prior to Together Days and posed as committee members there to pick up items to be donated for the auction. Several of the items were swimming pool games and furniture accessories such as lamps. But more expensive items were not targeted.

Westbrook’s mayor and aldermen agreed Monday to take a quick look at a 1946 ordinance that Matty DiRenzo says will force him to shut down Westbrook’s only taxi business. The ordinance requires insurance of $100,000 (injury to one person), $300,000 (injury to more than one) and $25,000 (property damage). DiRenzo says it will cost him at least $5,000 extra to get that much insurance. His cab license runs out June 30, and when he applied to renew it he was told about the 45-year-old insurance requirement by Deputy City Clerk T.J. Storer, said city staff lawyer Richard Sullivan. DiRenzo told the City Council Monday it’s the first time the city ever told him about the old ordinance.

Rock E. Green, 37, of 191 Spring St., Westbrook, an experienced marathoner, is going to run all day and all night to raise $10,000 for the AIDS Project and the PWA (People with AIDS) Coalition. He plans his 24-hour ultra-marathon at Fitzpatrick Stadium, Portland, beginning at midnight Sept. 21. He decided in April to make the run after a friend died of AIDS. He ran for 24 hours in a race in 1981, running 124 miles and finishing second.

Kelly Frazier likely knew that track records she set as a middle distance runner at Gorham High School would not last forever, but little did she suspect that her little sister would come along and leave her marks – on Kelly’s marks. Kristin Frazier took her place in the high school trophy case with a school record 2:26:94 time in the 800 meter run at the state girls trace and field finals June 3. Whose school record did she break? You guessed it. Her time earned her a third place finish in the Class B field, perhaps an indication of things to come for this promising freshman, said Coach Cindy Smith.

Philip Spiller Jr. is valedictorian, Leigh Palubinskas is salutatorian and Joshua Sparling is honor essayist in the class of 1991 at Westbrook High School. Spiller will attend Cornell University studying aerospace engineering; Palubinskas will study medicine at the University of Notre Dame; and Sparling, will major in pre-med at the University of Maine.

Gorham High School’s top students for 1991 are Deidre Fohlin, valedictorian, and Janet Kafkas, salutatorian. Fohlin will study marine biology at Bowdoin College. Kafkas plans to attend Wheaton College in Illinois majoring in economics and anthropology.

June 20, 2001

Westbrook’s City Council voted 5-2 Monday to endorse creation of a Downtown Development District, defined in the resolve as including building development, new job creation, installation of redundant power and Internet access, pedestrian and street improvements and developing additional parking and establishing a downtown tax increment financing district. The vote also encompassed endorsement for building a riverside walkway and rehabilitation of Brown Street housing. A public hearing was set for July 2 on creating a TIF district for the downtown and a “credit enhancement” TIF district, the return-$300,000-a-year-in-taxes proposal to encourage Timothy Flannery to build a proposed $16 million office building where Stulz Electric now sits.

Tomorrow, June 21, is the first day of summer, but Westbrook still has an authentic piece of winter – a mound of snow up to 10 feet high that measures about 100 by 200 feet. It’s the city’s snow dump, off William Clarke Drive in Bicentennial Park. It’s smooth, hard ramp of compacted snow was made by a bulldozer so trucks could drive up it and dump their loads. That density, combined with the thick coating of sand, is why it’s lasted so long.

Advertisement: Smoke-Free Bingo. If you’ve wanted to play but are bothered by the smoke, the Westbrook K of C Bingo, 89 Saco St., will go smoke-free beginning July 11!

The latest census reveals that Gorham’s gals outnumber the guys. The 2000 population was 14,141, a 19.3 percent jump from the 1990 census, with females representing 51.6 percent and males 48.4 percent. The largest age group, 35-44, is 17.5 percent of the population. The median age of Gorham residents is 34.3 years.

When school reopens this fall, Gorham school buses will be equipped with video surveillance cameras. The Gorham School Committee passed a police measure Wednesday paving the way for installation. “I’m glad to see it come forward,” said committee member David Kent. Gorham has 27 buses. The director of transportation will maintain the tapes.

Lynn’s Lunch was located at 427 Warren Ave., at the time when Warren Avenue ran from the Portland line, between S.D. Warren and the Cumberland Mills Fire Station, ending just before the Warren library. The portion of Warren Avenue between Cumberland Street and the Warren library was renamed Harnois Avenue in honor of the late police chief, Pierre Harnois. Lynn’s Lunch was owned and operated by Harlan & Evelyn Rounds. The business closed in the mid 1960s and the building was removed. The site is part of the parking lot for the Maine Medical building constructed on the site of the old police station. 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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