City Hopeful of Solution for Maine Rubber Facility

AJ:

The Westbrook City Council has accepted a $125,000
grant to help clean up the former Maine Rubber buildings and property at 942
Main St., and renewed talks between the city and the property’s owners are
finally showing promise of new development there. "We’re making very good
progress," Keith Luke, the city’s director of community and economic
development, told the council at a meeting Monday night.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: City: Messrs. Elowitch, Tear Down These Walls (April 29, 2011)

Westbrook High Hires New Baseball, Softball Coaches

PPH:

Westbrook High has hired new varsity baseball and
softball coaches. Greg Souza, a former assistant, is the new Blue Blazes'
baseball coach, and Dee (Regan) Allen will coach softball. Allen has coached
Portland for the last three seasons. Their nominations were approved Wednesday
night by the Westbrook School Committee.

- John C.L. Morgan

School Department Explores Closure of Prides Corner, School Re-Configuration

AJ:

The Prides Corner School would be closed and the elementary school model would
be reconfigured if one scenario for the 2012-2013 budget is approved. School
Superintendent Marc Gousse officially informed the Prides Corner staff Monday
that their school might close. He followed that with a district-wide staff email
discussing the possibility and a meeting for district employees on Tuesday
afternoon.

- John C.L. Morgan

Full disclosure: I teach at Westbrook High School.

Related: School Officials to Host Open Forum on Upcoming Budget (Monday, November 28, 2011)

Indian Restaurant, Ice Cream Shop to Open Downtown

AJ:

If you love homemade ice cream, chocolate or curry, you might want to pay
attention to the 800 block of Main Street through the next month or so. Two new
Westbrook businesses will soon open in the heart of downtown, and both represent
the goals of two people who have already made names for themselves on the
Portland culinary scene.

- John C.L. Morgan

On Political Apathy

The Frog and Turtle to Host Santa Again

The Frog and Turtle is hosting Santa at its restaurant for the third year in a row on Saturday, December 10, from 10a-1p.

A ten-dollar donation to benefit the Mission Possible Teen Center will get you a photo with your child (or you, if you prefer) and Santa. There will also be complimentary coffees, cookies, and doughnuts.

- John C.L. Morgan

How Maine Gets Its Drink On

Considering it's nearly closing time on the 78th anniversary of the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment repealing prohibition, what better time to check out the Boston Globe's take on Maine's "new drinking culture":

John Myers, a traditional saloonist and cocktail
historian, tends bar at The Grill Room, a steakhouse with a wood-burning grill
in the center of the Old Port here. Myers, looking like a Wild West gunslinger
with his wool vest and bushy beard, stands in the lamplight - a sommelier of
cocktails ready to shake or stir. I’m sitting on the other side of the bar,
deciding what to order. I know that the bar man specializes in the tried and
true. I ask him what defines a classic cocktail.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Did You Know? (February 20, 2008)