Aug. 25, 1993
The drug trade is unwillingly subsidizing the cops again. Westbrook police are getting a new computer with $68,630 in drug forfeiture funds from the state. The city is adding $5,909 for a total of $74,269 for the new system. Alderman have approved the purchase from AT&T-NCR.

Officials from Gorham, Windham and Portland are looking at whether expanding the Metro bus service up routes 25 and 302 is feasible. If the public bus system goes into those towns, local tax money likely would be needed to fund some of the costs. Metro currently serves Portland and Westbrook. “We are exploring what Metro could be. Most often we have discussed the major corridors, which include Route 25 through Gorham and Route 302 to Windham,” said John Bubier, executive director of the Greater Portland Council of Governments.

Ben Gilman, son of Robert W. and Carolyn M. Gilman, 18 Locust St., Westbrook, a 1993 Westbrook High School graduate, is the latest recipient of the Westbrook Tuffy Football Scholarship. He has played football nine years, three for the Tuffy League, two at the junior high and four at the high school. An honor student, he plans to attend the University of Maine to study mechanical engineering.

Advertisement: Mister Bagel comes to Westbrook! Look for our opening the week of Aug. 30. Please watch for exact date. Owner/manager Tim Maloy. Located at 138 Main St., next to Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Christoper Moody, son of Thad and Roxanne Moody, Narragansett Street in Gorham, received an exciting gift on his 16th birthday July 25. Roger and Betty Hanscom, his grandparents, turned ownership of a 1928 Model A street rod over to him. Roger started putting this car together with Chris’ help when Chris was 3 years old, intending all along for it to be his grandson’s when the time was right. The past three years Roger and Betty, and Chris at times, have enjoyed showing it in parades and at numerous shows, with much recognition.

Aug. 27, 2003
Three weeks after the Gorham Town Council cleared the way for him, developer Steve Kasprzak has applied for a contract zone that would “guarantee” he could build 228 condominium units on Fort Hill Road over the next six to eight years. Along with the massive housing project, known as Pheasant Knoll, would come more that $500,000 worth of projects to benefit the rest of the town, Kasprzak said, primarily sidewalks on Fort Hill Road and a sewer pump station upgrade to serve the entire neighborhood. He doesn’t need a contract zone and already has preliminary approval from the Planning Board for the first phase of 65 units, but he wants to establish a contract zone in order to guarantee any zone changes in the neighborhood would not derail the rest of the project in the coming years.

Investors behind an office building and restaurant proposed for Saccarappa Park are looking for a new site after they and the city decided to put the park project on hold. Former Mayor Ken Lefebvre, one of the four investors in the project, said they “just plain don’t want to do a project in Westbrook that the community doesn’t want. We all live and work here.” The group had offered the city $150,000 to $180,000 for the park land.

The Gorham Democratic Town Committee is honoring Gorham’s tireless community servant, author, former state legislator and secretary of state, Rodney S. Quinn, with a picnic Sept 7 in Gorham. Quinn and his wife, Melba, will be the guests of honor at the event.

The University of Southern Maine in hoping to break ground within a month on an $8 million, 20,000-square-foot expansion of the Mitchell Center, which houses the School of Applied Sciences and Technology in the heart of the Gorham campus. It’s named after longtime professor and Gorham resident John Mitchell. The facility will include an industrial control and robotics lab, a “Learning Factory” to familiarize students with manufacturing techniques, an expanded area where students and faculty can build working prototypes, and additional classroom and facilities so the school can extend consultation services to Maine industries.

It looked like the Reindeer Theater Company, an arts and theater cooperative formerly in Westbrook and Portland, had found a new home in Gorham. But concerns about the safety and a lack of permits may jeopardize those plans. Louis Philippe, the company’s founder, announced last month that Reindeer was moving into the First Parish Congregational Church on School Street, leasing the ground-floor addition adjacent to the church. But Code Enforcement Officer Clint Cushman was not approached for permits. Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said the fire code requires a sprinkler system to allow crowds of more than 50 and because a theater would be a new use for the space. Philippe said the cost of a sprinkler could put a halt to the deal.

Tenants over the years of this buildng at 130 Main St. included the House of Hay 0ffices, Kentucky Fried Chicken, The Figure Spa, a kitchen appliance dealership and Mr. Bagel. The building was demolished several years ago to make room for a new Kentucky Fried Chicken & Taco Bell Restaurant, replacing the old Kentucky Fried Chicken Building at 140 Main St. 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.