This week’s edition!
Archive for August 2017
Final week for summer tours at Norlands
Hiram Briggs, portrayed by Larry Whittington, explains the day’s penmanship lesson in the District #7 school house. Briggs (1838-1892) taught 18 terms of school in Livermore from 1848-1877. (Photo by Ryan Burnham)
Norlands Living History Center in Livermore will present the final living history tours of its summer season on Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday, August 26, 29, and 31, each day at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. To have time to enjoy the full site, plan to arrive by 3 p.m. Come tour the 1867 Washburn family mansion, farmer’s cottage, and one-room schoolhouse while visiting with interpreters dressed in period clothing who portray residents of the area from the 1800s. Round out your visit with a nature walk on a historic carriage trail or bring a picnic lunch to enjoy on the beautiful grounds. Admission is $10 for adults, $6 kids 12 and under, or $25 for a family of two adults with two or more children under 18. ?Discounted admission will be offered on August 31. Norlands is located at 290 Norlands Road in Livermore. For more information, call 897-4366 or see www.norlands.org.
Community Credit Union receives national CUNA awards
Pictured here (l. to r.) are Executive Vice President Christina Carter and President/CEO Jennifer Hogan of Community Credit Union, with Maine Credit Union League Board Member Vicki Stuart.
Community Credit Union has been named the 2016 recipient of the CUNA Desjardins Financial Education Award for youth and adult financial education, the Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Award, and the Louise Herring Philosophy-in-Action Award. President/CEO Jen Hogan traveled to the Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington D.C. to accept the awards.
Governor’s Address: Making promises is easy if you don’t live in the real world
It’s easy for politicians in Washington, D.C. to make promises to the people, especially when they don’t have to deal with real-world consequences.
Dear Maine Taxpayer,
Governors are directly accountable to the people. We are required to balance our budgets. If we fail to do that, our residents suffer the consequences, such as higher taxes or even government shutdowns.
We have to live with the consequences of our actions every day. Senators in Washington D.C. don’t have to deal with the harsh reality of keeping their promises. They just keep making promise after promise, even if it creates $20 trillion in debt.
Our Senators in Washington, D.C. want to expand Medicaid in Maine. They aren’t living in the real world. They did not have to deal with the disastrous effects of Maine’s Medicaid expansion in 2002.
Enough is Enough: Well-heeled Southern Maine towns have no pity for Lewiston
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
Several years ago a coalition of service city mayors was formed to ensure that their cities would have an outlet to the legislature. Being a “service city” was the progressive code to indicate welfare was abound.
Collectively, the coalition strove to ensure that our cities were not left by the wayside and our many needs would be met.
School funding remains a constant problem, especially if you live in a small school district. One problem that could easily arise and place severe fiscal distress on a small school system is special education. Special education students range from a student needing a little bit of help in their schoolwork to the school system being forced to send a child out of state, often costing a healthy six-figure tuition in order to meet the child’s needs.
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.
