May 30, 1984

Former Westbrook High School gymnast Lisa Morelli, 22, charged

along with Portland brothers Michael and Robert Marshall in the Sept. 21 murder of Truman Dongo, said Thursday on the witness stand that she started experimenting with marijuana and other drugs when she was 13. From the time she was 17 until her arrest in October, she used the drugs LSD, PCP (“Angel Dust”), THC (the chief intoxicant in marijuana), heroin and cocaine, she said. State Police Detective Peter Herring said Thursday on the witness stand that as part of his investigation into the disappearance of Truman Dongo, he met for half an hour with Michael Marshall. Ten days later Dongo’s body was found in Stow; three days after that, Herring and (another officer) arrested Marshall and Lisa Morelli at the Brunswick Hotel in Old Orchard Beach. Marshall’s brother Robert was arrested later in the day at the home of Dan Ross, 53 Keswick Road, South Portland. The state says Dongo was murdered Sept. 21 by Michael and Robert Marshall and Miss Morelli, and is trying the Marshall brothers in Superior Court in South Paris.

Gorham High School Principal Philip Blood told the school

committee recently that he wants to adopt a stricter policy for

students making up a failed course. They have to take the exact same course over again. Students who fail a course now have five options: to make it up; have a certified teacher tutor them in the failed course; take the same course or an equivalent in summer school, night school or correspondence school; or repeat the failed course in regular school. “We feel we are granting credit where it isn’t worth it,” Blood said. “It’s a matter of putting in time to define the credit. We need to know what a diploma from Gorham High School represents.” Blood proposed that the choice be either to have a certified teacher tutor the student in the course, or to take the same course over again. He said there is some doubt as to what is an equivalent course, and that students aren’t always making up what they previously failed.

The Gorham girls pulled out an unpredicted 50-point win over

favored Scarborough in the girls’ Triple C Championship track meet at Sacopee Valley, placing first with 121 points to Scarborough’s 72 points, Lake Region’s 63. Lori Broadhurst, Sandy McPhail, Lisa Kent, Colleen Gorman, Janis Denehy, Karla Butterfield, Carole Beale and Joellen Mason were among contributors. Lisa Kent set a meet record in the 330 low hurdles with a winning time of 48.9.

June 1, 1994

Taxpayers in Gorham are at it again. Upset with a tax rate increase of $1.23, Mark Faulkner, 5 Shaw’s Mill Road, took out petitions on Thursday to recall the 1994-95 town budget.

Faulkner has until Saturday to turn in the 883 signatures of registered Gorham voters. If he is successful, the issue will go to referendum, either combined with the June 14 primary or during a special election soon afterward. This is the second year in a row that Gorham has faced a recall of its town budget. Last year, a group of taxpayers led by Nicholas Aceto, State Street, successfully overturned the Town Council’s budget, and was able to block their intended tax increase.

The school budget, city budget, and the election of a mayor are

coming together in Westbrook’s city calendar. The School Committee will hold a public hearing in the high school on its new budget, expected to cost $296,447 more in local tax money. It’s expected to pass tonight. The impact of the budgets, and the council’s handling of them, may show up in how the people vote when they choose between Kenneth Lefebvre, Philip Spiller and Fred Porell for mayor June 14.

The latest news from 213 New Gorham Road, Westbrook: As reported on Page One of last week’s American Journal, Mrs. Wolf found a bird’s nest and eggs in the ornament as she was housecleaning. The Maine Audubon Society said the birds probably are house finches.

“Inappropriate behavior” by one or more boys in Westcott Junior High School Westbrook, Wednesday, led to the discovery that seven boys had been smoking marijuana. An eighth boy, from another junior high, was charged with possessing marijuana with intent to sell it. Assistant Principal Robert Welch made a room-by-room tour of the building Wednesday afternoon discussing the incident.

Westbrook Police Notes: A bull moose was close to the road on

Pride Street at 5 p.m., then in the roadway at 29 Elmwood Ave.;

Patrolman 27 was able to get him to return to the woods at 5:30 p.m. At 6 p.m., a woman lying on a Seavey Street lawn was taking her pants off. She was gone when the police got there. A mother said her son had been given marijuana with an adult present. Mrs. Libby, 477 Saco St., caught a skunk in a live trap. Dave Sparks relocated it.