This week’s edition!
News
Firehouse Subs mural portrays Balloon Festival
In keeping with the company’s founding by former firefighting brothers, the décor of the new Firehouse Subs restaurant at 410 Center Street in Auburn features firefighter memorabilia on display. The new restaurant also boasts this custom, hand-painted mural depicting store proprietor Coleman Sheffield and a fireman holding a Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation banner while standing between Lewiston and Auburn fire trucks at the annual Great Falls Balloon Festival.
Celebration Barn presents Rene Johnson’s GEEL
This original one-woman show offers a new kind of interactive theater, conveying Johnson’s personal journey toward overcoming childhood trauma. (Photo courtesy of Rene Johnson)
Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris will present Rene Johnson’s GEEL on Saturday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m. In this original one-woman show written and performed by René Johnson, the action unfolds through thoughtful storytelling as her “tribe” – the audience – experiences a new kind of interactive theater that includes powerful dance and song in multiple languages, including English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa.
Remembering 1st Lt. Benjamin Cross
On August 9, the Marines and Sailors of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the USS Bonhomme Richard gathered to honor the three Marines, 1st Lt. Benjamin Cross, Cpl. Nathaniel Ordway, and Pfc. Ruben Velasco, who were lost on August 5 during a training mishap off the coast of Eastern Australia. Benjamin Cross was from Oxford, Maine.
Several speakers remembered Cross, Ordway and Velasco during the moving sunset memorial, which offered their fellow Marines an opportunity to recall shared moments, common aspirations, and stories of the three who gave their lives in the line of duty.
Howaniec to address Rotary on proposed Twin Cities merger
The Auburn-Lewiston Rotary Breakfast Club will welcome guest speaker Jim Howaniec on Wednesday, August 23 at 7 a.m. at Park Street Methodist Church in Auburn. Tickets are available at the door and include breakfast. Howaniec, chair of the Coalition Opposed to Lewiston-Auburn Consolidation, will discuss his position on the proposed merger of the two cities, to be voted on in a local referendum on November 7. A lifelong resident of Lewiston, Howaniec has served as mayor from 1990 to 1994 and as a former Assistant Attorney General in Augusta. He has maintained his own law practice on Lisbon Street since 1991.
Governor’s Address: Legislators who say 18-year-olds are not adults are hypocrites
To be an adult, or not to be? That is the question I have for the Maine State Legislature.
Dear Maine Taxpayer,
I vetoed a bill that would prohibit 18-year-old adults from buying cigarettes, but the Legislature overturned it. This new law denies rights and responsibilities to 18-year-old adults who want to purchase a legal product.
Quite simply, any legislator who voted for this law is a hypocrite. These legislators have no problem trying 18-year-olds as adults in a court of law, and they want 18-year-olds to vote for them in our elections. They make 18-year-olds pay taxes, and they allow 18-year-olds to get married and divorced and make medical decisions for themselves.
Legislators even allow people 18 and younger to use birth control and smoke “medical” marijuana. But now they say 18-year-old adults cannot decide for themselves whether to buy cigarettes.
Enough is Enough: Dog days of August usher in Maine’s country fair season
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
The dog days of August are upon us. By the looks of traffic on the road, most of L-A’s population is either on vacation or living at their camps. So this week, let’s keep it light and hopefully entertaining.
August ushers in the start of an American institution, the country fair. Being from away, I grew up in a city dominated by tall buildings and grill hot sidewalks. We were never introduced or aware of country living.
Carnivals were common in the city, springing up in one section of the city and after a few days moving on to another section. Carnivals had an abundance of kiddie rides, over-salted, greasy carney food and the ever-popular games of chance set up to hustle you out of a small fortune in order to impress your beau.
If you wanted to see small, cuddly animals, you were out of luck. There weren’t any! You had to visit a zoo to fulfill that wish.
Record crowd attends AHCH’s Butterfly Release Remembrance Ceremony
Adia Wezowicz looks closely at a butterfly that landed on her hand at the Butterfly Release.
More than 800 people of all ages gathered in an open field at Geiger Elementary School recently to remember a loved one at Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice’s annual Butterfly Release Remembrance Ceremony. More than 700 butterflies were purchased in memory of a loved one to benefit patient care at the Hospice House. Nearly $23,000 was raised, with all proceeds going directly to patient care at the Hospice House.
Dr. Dycio celebrates 95th birthday
Dr. Mary Dycio was honored on her 95th birthday at a luncheon recently at Rolandeau’s Restaurant in Auburn. Friends and former co-workers attending included Dr. and Mrs. Behzad Fakhery, Dr. and Mrs. Paul Mailhot, Dr. and Mrs. Yasuo Kanda, Connie Begin, Pauline Grenier, Dianne Massey, Janine Lauze, Jeannine Johansen, Carlene Boucher, Tonia Simard, Nancy Sequin, Pauline Castonguay, Georgette Whittier, Helen Incze, Robert and Pierrette Lamontagne, Denise Lamontagne, and Pat Morton. Dr. Dycio was formerly an anesthesiogist at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Central Maine Medical Center. After her retirement, she studied art at USM-LA, focusing on watercolors. Her beautiful floral scenes are displayed at Rolandeau’s and in the homes of many friends. (Photo by Denise Lamontagne)
Maine State Music Theatre brings “The Taffetas” to Lewiston
The Taffetas are (l. to r.) Rebecca Rene Kelley, Tracy Sokat, Natalie Bellamy, and Sara Sargent. (Photo by Roger S. Duncan)
Maine State Music Theatre will present “The Taffetas” for one day only at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick on Monday, August 14 at 2 and 7:30 p.m., with a special additional performance at the Gendron Franco Center in Lewiston on Monday, August 25 at 7:30 p.m. This will be the first time that Maine State Music Theatre stages a performance in Lewiston, and tickets for the Lewiston performance will be offered at a special price of $10 to $15.
St. Dom’s to offer football through agreement with Lisbon H.S.
Taking part in the press conference announcing the agreement were (l. to r.) St. Dom’s sophomore Robbie Dick, Lisbon H.S. senior Noah Buiniskas, Head Football Coach Chris Kates, Lisbon H.S. Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Eric Hall, and St. Dom’s Dean of Students and Athletics J.P. Yorkey.
Saint Dominic Academy announced at a press conference recently that it is has reached a cooperative agreement with Lisbon High School and the Maine Principals’ Association to allow St. Dom’s students to play football on the Lisbon High School team. The cooperative agreement begins this fall and is open to new and returning students.
