July 31, 1991

An assassin or assassins armed with a pellet gun raided the Woodlawn Cemetery duck pond in Westbrook Sunday afternoon and left behind a dead white duck, a dead white goose, a dead baby mallard, with one other wounded and one missing out of a family of six, a dead grackle, a dead pigeon, a seagull near death, a duck with two bad wounds, a wounded goose and a goose and two ducks that have bloody wounds but look as if they’ll live. “It was a cowardly and totally inexcusable thing to do. A brutal and heinous thing. A crying shame,” said resident Tuffy Laffin, who lives nearby. He intends to offer a $100 reward if police need help in finding who did it. David Sparks, the part-time animal control officer, came on a vacation day to take charge of the wounded.

Elizabeth Deans and her husband John live in a modest white ranch house on Gray Road in Gorham. Their 3-acre lot is surrounded on three sides by the blasting, digging and hauling of Northeastern General Contractors, Standish, which is building a 2,300-foot road, a horseshoe open to Gray Road with access points on both sides of the Deans’ home. A 17-house subdivision is to be built on 30 acres there. They recently called the police after pieces of rock and dirt showered down on their home and land from the blasting.

Westbrook sent lien notices Friday to 600 people who haven’t paid the half-year property tax bill that was due May 13. Susan Fitzpatrick, finance director, said that’s the highest number of delinquent taxpayers in her 13 years with the city. Usually, 300-350 don’t pay. A lien notice is the first step in a procedure in which the city will take over property if the tax is not paid.

Claude Daigle Jr., Sebago Lake Road in Gorham, presently runs the potato farm that his father, Claude Sr., was running. His father also raised corn to supply the Harmon corn factory until it went out of business. Now, Claude Jr. and son Claude III “Fred” raise some super sweet corn to sell locally. They sell what they grow and do not contract their potatoes out to buyers as some farmers do before they are harvested.

Information is wanted for the whereabouts of the Westbrook World War II veteran honor roll. It was in Vallee Square and was later moved to the Dunn Street American Legion Hall. During 1953 it was removed, but as of the present time Arthur O. Caron has been unable to find where it went. Anyone who knows where it went should contact him.

Aug. 1, 2001

Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre credits training, planning and personnel action for avoiding any serious injury in a fire Wednesday that did about $100,000 damage to the Gorham House nursing home. He said the fire was due to improperly discarded smoking material. It started on a wooden deck off the second floor, over a sunroom. Smoking is not allowed on the deck. Residents were safely evacuated. Most damage was on the outside, he said, with some interior damage on the sunroom.

In the Tax Increment Finance District that comes to a final vote by the Westbrook City Council Aug. 6, Timothy Flannery has five years to build the riverbank office building that is a principal part of the TIF lure. The TIF would return up to $300,000 a year in taxes on such a building to Flannery for 20 years. The council will also vote on whether to make final another 20-year TIF district in much of the downtown. That TIF would take taxes on any growth in valuation out of the general fund and use them to pay costs for a parking garage for Flannery’s buildings, among other projects.

Westbrook Animal Control Officer David Sparks said an increase in foxes and other wildlife in the city this summer is common to the whole area, and likely is the result of increased rural development. In Westbrook, foxes and woodchucks have been making their way into back yards, bird feeders, porches, driveways and anywhere else they can find food. “Everybody is moving into the rural areas,”said Sparks. “You’re going to see more and more of it. The animals either die or they do what they have to do and find a way to survive in the suburbs.” And the influx includes all kinds of animals. “I tranquilized a 90-pound bear in Westbrook five weeks ago, near Main Street and Saco Street,” Sparks said. “About the only thing we haven’t had to deal with yet are lions, tigers and elephants.”

Jeffrey R. Fearon has been promoted in the U.S. Air Force to the rank of major. He is the son of Russell E. and Claudette T. Fearon, 333 Pride St., Westbrook, and graduated in 1980 from Westbrook High School and 1984 from the University of Maine. He earned a master’s degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

It was 80 years ago when Lillian Hamblen started school at the Frederick Robie School in Little Falls, Gorham. No school bus in those days. She and her brother Almery rode in a horse-drawn wagon driven by their mom. In the winter, they went to school by sleigh. Lillian, now Lillian Hamblen Grant, 87, visited the school last week. It is being restored by the Gorham PTA to be a community center. Lillian taught at Robie school for 15 years, until it closed in 1957. Then she went to the newly opened Little Falls School, and retired after teaching 37 years.

The Westbrook Trust Co. built this branch office in 1964 at 9 Cumberland St. to replace a smaller office they had in the Warren Block across the street. Westbrook Trust was bought out by Norstar Bank Corp., and Norstar was bought out by Fleet Bank, which closed this branch and sold the building. Peter and Bill Foye operated a carpet and flooring business at this location for several years before moving to Park Road. Thanksgiving Bakery & Eatery occupied the building for a few years before closing. The Brea Lu Cafe, formerly of Forest Avenue in Portland, will reopen in this location sometime next month. 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 [email protected]. The website is www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org. Photo and research courtesy of Mike Sanphy