Nov. 17, 1993

Westbrook policemen put down their razors yesterday in hope their beards will  increase public awareness and put pressure on the city to speed up a new contract. They have been working under the old once since June 1992. They’ll have time to get full beards. Mayor Fred Wescott said the contract is headed to mediation but the mediator hasn’t been chosen yet. In the 17 months the contract has been in negotiation, the policemen changed unions. They dropped the Teamsters and moved to the Maine Association of Police.

Someone took the scissors to the mustache and whiskers of Cruiser, the Westbrook police station’s black and white cat. Capt. John A. Schmidlin admonished the unknown clipper. Cats need those hairs for balance and for measuring their way in tight spaces, he said.

The water main on Huston Road in Gorham is being extended to reach the town garage and four surrounding private homes. The extension is needed at the town garage, located on the site of the old landfill, because the well is contaminated with “volatile organic material,” according to Bill Taylor, town engineer. Town employees are supplied with bottled water to drink and wash with. They’re not allowed to wash town vehicles with the contaminated water for fear of the water coming in contact with their skin. The Department of Environmental Protection is paying for 90 percent of the $125,432 cost and the town will pay the remaining 10 percent.

The official Nov. 2 election recount Friday for Westbrook’s Ward 3 resulted in a tie: 420 votes for Florence Libby, Democrat, 420 for Don. E. Richards, incumbent elected as a Democrat but running as an independent, and 219 for Republican Brian Cramer.

Municipal officers voted Friday to set Tuesday, Dec. 14, as the date for a new Ward 3 election.

Mark Winship, 28, a 1983 graduate of Westbrook High School, has been named director of corporate development at Aloha Bowl Charities Inc., Honolulu, a nonprofit organization that manages the Jeep Eagle Aloha Bowl Football Classic and the Aloha Games. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Winship Jr., 28 Declaration Drive, and graduated from Nichols College, Dudley, Massachusetts, in 1988.

Nov. 19, 2003

Harold “Butch” Freeman of Gorham drilled in Westbrook with Company B of the 133rd Engineer Battalion of the Maine National Guard Saturday for the first time in three years. After hearing that his old unit was being called up, Freeman decided to leave behind his family and rejoin his former outfit where he had served for 12 years before leaving for the reserves. A heavy combat and construction battalion, the 133rd was notified recently that is was being mobilized Dec. 7. The battalion has about 500 soldiers.

A local developer wants to build a 26-unit affordable housing apartment building next to the old Bridge Street School. Lew Golder of Windham would invest about $4 million in the four-story building. He would use federal tax credits for affordable housing to help finance the project, which is similar to the way the Westbrook Housing Authority financed the renovation of the old high school on Main Street. Golder already owns the school building, which he renovated into eight affordable housing units in the 1970s. He plans to seek a contract zone for the new apartment building because the current zoning would allow for only 20 additional units on the 70,000-square-foot property. The new apartment building would have 18 two-bedroom apartments and eight three-bedroom apartments.

It appears likely that Westbrook will hold a referendum on whether Scarborough Downs should be allowed to build a racino in the city. The City Council plans to hold a hearing on the proposal Nov. 24, and will vote on whether to send the issue out to referendum. Scarborough Downs has been looking for a place to relocate and put in about 1,500 slot machines, since Scarborough voters upheld a gambling ban in that town that would prohibit adding slot machines to the track.

The Gorham Town Council adopted a recreation impact fee at their meeting last week, though not unanimously. New chairman Burleigh Loveitt was one of two councilors who opposed the fee, which would be placed on new residential structures. The builder of a single-family home will now have to pay a $1,715 fee, and each unit in new multi-unit buildings would also require a fee.

Leonard Holmes’ request for a contract zone to develop a recreation center in a building in the Gorham Industrial Park has been denied. While all Gorham town councilors agreed the idea was one they would like to see in Gorham, the conflict came over giving up industrial property for uses not covered in the comprehensive plan. The project would have had five basketball courts, a fitness facility and locker rooms.

Gorham High School senior Whitney Flanagan is one of 16,000 students nationwide named as a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Flanagan keeps busy at school, where she is a member of the drama club, history club and math team. She was one of three Maine students to take part in the Junior Statesman Conference in Washington, D.C., last February. She is interested in attending Vassar College and hopes to study social science.

This stately mansion once stood at 730 Main St. at the corner of Stroudwater Street. Dr. Jacob L. Horr occupied it from 1873 until his death in December of 1916. Horr was an alderman in 1899 and mayor from 1900-1901. In later years, Mayor William B. Bragdon (1919) lived here. The house was demolished in the 1950s to make way for an Esso Gasoline and Service Station. Cumberland Farms currently 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 [email protected]. The website is www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org.