By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    When Cape Elizabeth’s Athletic Director Keith Weatherbie and Community Services Director Sue Weatherbie, both retire
June 30, the former husband and wife will have served the town for
nearly 70 years between the two of them.

    “It was just coincidental that we’re both retiring
this year,” Sue Weatherbie said. “I guess we both talked about it for
several years [and said] ‘Ah, one more year, one more year.”

    Now at the age of 61, “the time feels right and I believe community services is in a good place,” she said.

    Sue Weatherbie became the community services
director in 1986 after serving as an assistant director for five years.
The program is a division of the school department and offers
educational, cultural, recreational and social enrichment
opportunities.

    “It’s grown about five times over,” Sue Weatherbie
said of the program, adding daily traffic through the Ocean House Road
building typically exceeds 300 people a day. “Back in the early stages,
community services had a budget of $250,000 and now we’re over the
million dollar mark. We are about the only 90 percent self-sustaining
department in the town. The programs basically pay for themselves and
some of the administrative costs of the building are subsidized by tax
dollars.”

    Before the town converted the Pond Cove Millwork
property to a community center in 2001, the program was relocated six
different times throughout the schools, Sue Weatherbie said. She said
the creation of the center is one of the projects she is proud to have
facilitated during her 28-year tenure.

    Sue Weatherbie said she also considers the Pond Cove
Elementary School renovation, the community pool renovation and the
restructuring of the transportation and custodial departments,
important accomplishments in her career with the program.

    “I think community services is probably just about
as big as it can get with the percent of the population that we are
already involved with,” she said. “The population in Cape isn’t
changing and I think we’re sort of at a point where our program group
has sort of peaked.”

    Sue Weatherbie said the goal is to maintain the level of services residents have come to expect.

    “We have a very supportive citizen group,” she said.
“They have high expectations and they support all of the community
assets that this community has built and they utilize the services.”

    Sue Weatherbie, who was a field hockey and tennis
coach at Cape Elizabeth, plans to have an active retirement. She said
she might return to officiating field hockey, which she did for more
than 30 years, and plans to become affiliated with a golf course,
possibly working there part-time.

    “I would say I’m OK,” she said of her golf skills. “I’m an avid golfer.”

    Sue Weatherbie said she is also looking forward to
spending more time with her family, which includes three children and
seven grandchildren.

    When speaking about his own retirement, Keith
Weatherbie said his former wife has done a fantastic job with the
community services program.

    Now in his 41st year with the Cape Elizabeth School
Department and his 21st year in the athletic director position, Keith
Weatherbie is one of only two athletic directors to ever work in the
town’s schools. Dick Woodbury was the other athletic director and
served 20 years in the position, he said.

    Keith Weatherbie graduated from Cape Elizabeth High
School in 1963 and went on to attend present day University of Southern
Maine. He played basketball and baseball throughout high school and
college.

    He began teaching science at Cape Elizabeth in 1967
and went on to coach cross-country, track, basketball and baseball.
After becoming athletic director, Keith Weatherbie continued to teach
physics for 10 years.

    The 63-year-old said it is the right time to step down.

    “I think I put in enough time,” he said. “I think it
also might be a good point for the community to have a new or younger
person doing the job.”

    He added, “I enjoy the interaction with my coaches and the students and I love athletics.”

    Keith Weatherbie said he is proud of an increase in
the number of girls’ athletic programs offered by the schools. Those
offerings include lacrosse, ice hockey and volleyball.

    Cape Elizabeth also added boys and girls Nordic and alpine skiing and football, Keith Weatherbie said.

    “We have over 75 percent at the high school
participating in athletics and we have also been very successful on the
field and on the court as well,” he said. “I think if anybody checks
with surrounding communities, you’ll find the amount of money Cape
Elizabeth spends on athletics is less than surrounding communities. We
would not have the program we have without the tremendous support of
the booster programs.”

    Keith Weatherbie said the athletic director position
has evolved into a full-time job although he is currently paid
part-time.

According to Superintendent Alan Hawkin’s proposed fiscal year 2009
budget, having a full-time athletic administrator would translate to an
increase of $25,000 in the budget.

    While Keith Weatherbie says he’s not sure at this
point what his retirement plans will look like, he will stay active
and  “won’t be sitting around reading.”