Dec. 22, 1993

Cumberland County has 184,379 cars and light trucks that will be required to have their exhaust tested every two years, starting next July, and they’ll all be going to Terminal Way in Westbrook for the tests. The Westbrook Planning Board made it official last week, approving the site plan. Construction of the testing station will start soon. Systems Control Inc., of Sunnyvale, California, will build and run the place and six others like it in southern Maine. Westbrook’s will be the busiest of the seven.

Don Richards won a clear-cut victory last week in a race seen as a test of his budget paring, but the victory seems unlikely to change the balance of power on the Westbrook City Council. Richards got 488 votes, Florence Libby 358 and Brian Cramer got 9 in the Ward 3 alderman vote to settle the 420-420 Richards-Libby tie of Nov. 2.

The Awesome Racing slot-car track won Westbrook Planning Board approval to move from Chabot Street to the basement of the former Men’s Shop building on Main Street. Bruce Bell, owner, said he may ask the City Council for permission to add some pinball machines to help pay the rent. He described the track as a hobby for all ages, but the most serious are typically 20 to 50 years old. He said a busy night at Awesome Racing will see 35 people.

Members of the Gorham community and parishioners of St. Anne’s in Gorham again are helping needy families experience a traditional Christmas. For the past 10 years the church’s Social Justice and Peace Commission has sponsored an annual drive providing food to area needy during the holidays. Commission director Maryann Proulx said 99 local families received food baskets this year, containing fresh fruit, vegetables, canned goods, potatoes and either a ham or turkey, depending on what the family preferred.

Dec. 23, 2003

Wal-Mart announced plans to build one of its largest stores in Maine on the old Saunders Bros. site near a residential neighborhood. Saunders Bros. is moving most of its operations to Locke Mills. Wal-Mart officials said the 230,000-square-foot supercenter store would be open 24 hours a day. It would be completed in 2006 and employ 450 people. Wal-Mart could face challenges during the approval process. The store would require a zoning change, because the land is zoned now for industrial use. The store also would be surrounded by homes, and many nearby residents were surprised and upset to hear about the plans at a neighborhood meeting last week.

Thousands of luminary candles light neighborhood streets in Gorham, an annual Christmas Eve tradition started by Arthur Bolles. “It just took off. The thing just mushroomed and kept building and building,” said Bolles. This year, the candles will light over five miles of roads and last about 12 hours. Greg Nadeau, a Solomon Drive resident, has been helping organize the event for the past five or six years.

The beginning of construction on Westbrook’s new 550-car parking garage next to the new Core office building could cause traffic problems beginning Dec. 29. The garage will be constructed with precast concrete pieces, which were delivered to a site on Route 302 on Dec. 22. On Dec. 29, trucks will be bringing the enormous precast pieces down East Bridge and Bridge streets to the construction site.

For the second time in three years, an athletic field in the city of Westbrook has earned a national Field of the Year award. This honor this year goes to the Olmsted Soccer Field, judged by the Sports Turf Managers Association its 2003 Soccer Field of the Year in the high school/parts and recreation division. The football surface in the stadium at Olmsted Field was the winner of the 2000 Field of the Year award.

Philip Lourie ran this coin-operated laundry for many years at 672 Main St., across from Riverbank Park. The business closed in 1973 and the building was later demolished. 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.