Nov. 13, 1991

Fred C. Wescott begins his second two-year term worrying that he may have to lay some people off. His victory in last week’s election came less than 24 hours before Gov. John McKernan proposed budget cuts that would cost Westbrook between $400,000 and $500,000 by June 30. That was the latest bad news in a heap of it that has been piled on Wescott’s desk since he moved up to the mayor’s job from a City Council seat in 1989. Wescott called a meeting of department heads yesterday afternoon to look at what the city must do if the Legislature goes along with McKernan’s plan to chop revenue sharing.

Three members of Gorham’s police and fire departments have helped form a scuba diving team, making the town only the second community in Cumberland County to be able to respond to both surface and underwater emergencies. Robert Henckel and Lawrence Fearon, patrolmen with the Gorham Police Department and Paul Conley, a member of the Gorham Rescue Squad, have volunteered their time and resources to form three-quarters of the Gorham Public Safety Dive Team. The fourth member is Westbrook Fire Department Capt. Stanley Goff.

Members of the group that is fighting a state agency’s decision that may lead to a special waste dump in the middle of Buxton sought a vote in support from neighboring Gorham Nov. 12 at a meeting of the Town Council. Stand Now members hope to enlist the aid of both Gorham and Westbrook in their fight against the Maine Waste Management Agency, which has proposed a site at the intersection of Groveville Road and Route 22 to locate a 165-acre special waste landfill. The Buxton site is one of two that remain under consideration from an original list of some 100 sites.

Gorham voters approved the town’s purchase of four portable classrooms, but turned down a proposed $161,400 renovation of the bank development sewer.

A haunted forest that took nearly two months of planning and doing was ready for Halloween in the Chestnut Street area of Westbrook. It contained ghosts, goblins, pumpkins, music – even Ms. Maria Hume was dressed as a witch – and much more. The eager workers were Christopher and Kimberlee Willey, Joey and Mike Hume and Kory and Kasey Rickett.

Clint Thornton, Main Street in Gorham, is raising a German shepherd puppy that will be trained when older to lead a blind person, under the program Guiding Eyes of the Blind of New York. Clint teaches the puppies general obedience for walking in public and good behavior at home.

Nov. 14, 2001

Westbrook citizens, officials and city councilors all spoke at an unusual holiday City Council meeting, with most citizens speaking against the city taking by eminent domain the Westbrook Exxon property for a fire-police-rescue headquarters. When the vote finally came, it was 5-2 in favor of using the city’s power to force the Westbrook Exxon owners to sell to it. James Bennett, administrative assistant to Westbrook Mayor Donald Esty, told the City Council that he’d be meeting with Ray Cota, a vice president of Webber Oil, Bangor, and owner of two of the pieces the city wants for the new building.

Peggy Ann Cote will ask the Westbrook School Committee tonight for a new date for her resignation as a member. She asks to remain through two current actions: The committee’s evaluation of Superintendent Stan Sawyer and its negotiations for a new support staff labor contract.

Joanna Baker is helping to organize a concert to benefit a scholarship in the name of Ann Mason-Osann, a Gorham resident, choral music teach at Westbrook High School and choir leader at the First Parish Congregational Church in Gorham. “When she was sick, she and the choir recorded a CD of Christmas music and the sales of that CD raised over $30,000 for cancer research,” Baker said. Mason-Osann died of cancer this year.

A $5,000 black bull from Gorham suffered numerous leg cracks, a cracked butt and needs a nose job after falling from a roof. Repairs include plastic surgery. But he wasn’t taken to a vet. He’s at an auto body garage. The fiberglass bull, a landmark since 1986 atop Nicely’s Market, Route 25 in West Gorham, was carted off as a Halloween prank this year by a pair of juveniles. Motorists spotted the bull early Nov. 1 on a lawn in front of Bonny Eagle Middle School. The juveniles have apologized, the parents have made restitution and owners Felgar and Brenda Nicely aren’t pressing charges.

The state is going to pay $214,166 (41 percent) of the cost of some repairs at Westbrook High School. The city is to pay the additional $309,630 the work is expected to cost, but the state will pay the interest on that debt. The work is to replace the roof over the lockers and music room, remove asbestos and fix and fix a broken elevator for the handicapped.

Rudy Vallee and his family at one time resided at 35 Church St. when they first moved to Westbrook from Vermont. The family later moved to Monroe Avenue. In 1942, Henry Rocheleau purchased the house and relocated his funeral business (H.G. Rocheleau & Son) from 71 Church St. to this building. In 1953 Robert E. Blais Jr. purchased the business and renamed it Blais Funeral Home. He enlarged the building in 1975, adding a chapel and garage (this photo shows the building with carport before the addition). The business is presently owned and operated by Robert E. Blais III and his brother, James Blais. In 2002 they purchased the John W. Hay Funeral Home and changed the name to Blais & Hay Funeral Home. 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