Nov. 23, 1994

Westbrook’s mayor and aldermen took a look Monday at topless dancing – the idea of it, that is – and backed away. They postponed a decision on whether to allow Michel Salvaggio to open a nightclub at Exit 8 with topless male and female dancers. Salvaggio would use the space recently vacated by Jordan’s Seafood Restaurant. He operates the rest of the building as Michel’s Banquet Center. Resident Leo Lagasse said that if the public had been aware that the council would be voting on a license for topless dancing, “this room would have quite a few people in it.” Council President James Garland, calling that “a very good point,” moved to table the license.

At the mayor’s request, leaders on both sides of the Westbrook municipal electric district question got together Thursday with an industry expert who agreed to send them advice on how Westbrook could take another look. One idea was to make the proposal a regional one, with South Portland, Portland and the towns being involved. No timetable was set for further action, and other consultants may be invited to give competing ideas.

The Westbrook High School girls cross country team has won the Class A state championship for the third time in four years – 1991, 1993 and 1994. On a hilly, 3-mile course on Oct. 29, the girls placed six runners in the top 25: Jessica Mayol, Jessica Plourde, Laura Welch, Shelly Forrest, Kate McMann and Bess Berg.

Gorham residents Gil and Cy Bineau, Cressey Road, recently traveled to Hinesville, Georgia, where they joined 30 couples for a reunion of the 472nd Anti-Aircraft group of World War II. At Fort Stewart, they were honored and welcomed with a full dress parade, reception, lunch and tour. Some men rode in tanks. They meet each year, but this was their first visit back to where they took basic training.

Westbrook Memorial Post American Legion will serve a free Thanksgiving dinner from noon-2 p.m. Nov. 24 for veterans, their families and the homeless. It expects to serve up to 100 persons. Jeanette Holland said the community has been generous in supplying food – five turkeys and money for the many vegetables, pies, rolls, etc.

Nov. 23, 2004

An 8-foot inflatable SpongeBob SquarePants was still missing Monday after being stolen last week in a rooftop robbery at the Gorham Burger King on Main Street. Marc Butler of Gorham, manager of the restaurant, said their SpongeBob disappeared less than 12 hours after it went up on Nov. 16. SpongeBob was visiting Gorham as part of a Burger King promotion for the first SpongeBob movie, which was released last week. Ropes that held SpongeBob in place on the roof had been cut.

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The Westbrook Planning Board appears poised to place limitations on building size in the Gateway district, which, if passed, would put a crimp into potential plans for a super Wal-Mart on the site of the Saunders Bros. mill. At a workshop last week, board members reached a consensus to limit any single building in the Gateway zone to a footprint no larger than 165,000 square feet. If the limit were finalized, it would force Wal-Mart to change its plans, which had been a 203,000-square-foot “super center” on the site. Anne Bureau, a member of Westbrook Our Home group, said the group was happy with the board’s initial attempt to limit building size in the district.

Leo Guinard, 71, of Westbrook, who survived for six days in the woods after an accident in August, was killed Nov. 9 off Folly Road in Sebago when his ATV fell on top of him. Guinard was alone when he was attempting to load his ATV onto a trailer after a hunting trip. The ATV fell off the trailer onto Guinard. From Aug. 7-12, he was stranded in the woods in Sebago without food, water or his medications. He was found on Peaked Mountain, where he had fallen and gotten stuck in the mud after his truck had also gotten stuck on the mountainside. He was spotted about 400 yards from his truck. Guinard, who was conscious and alert when he was found, spent two days under observation in the hospital.

Cathryn Falwell was honored by the Gorham Town Council this month for her contributions of artwork to the Baxter Memorial Library. Falwell has created several new murals in the youth services area of the library, and recently dedicated one of her murals to the late Philip Hill. The library hosted an open house in her honor Nov. 20.

A play that has become a holiday tradition in Buxton, “The Old Peabody Pew,” will be presented Dec. 5 in the Tory Hill Meetinghouse. This year marks the 141st performance of the classic, written by Kate Douglas Wiggin, the children’s author who summered nearby in Hollis. The Dorcas Society of Buxton and Hollis sponsors the performance. Wiggin adapted the play, a Christmas romance, from her book of the same title written a century ago. The Tory Hill Meetinghouse was the setting for the play.

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