This week’s edition!
Root Cellar Golf Classic is Sept. 19
The 2nd Annual Root Cellar Fall Golf Classic at Martindale will tee off at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 19, rain or shine, at Martindale Country Club, 527 Beech Hill Road, Auburn.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. with a 9:30 a.m. shotgun start.
The tournament will feature a four-person team scramble format with prizes for best team score, best individual scores, longest drives and closest to the pin, as well as a 50/50 raffle and much more!
CLT signs 99-year lease for Great Falls Performing Arts Center
The Community Little Theatre’s Board of Directors began a new chapter for the beloved local theater company on August 25 with the signing of a lease from the city for CLT to control the Great Falls Performing Arts Center.
After over 20 years of on-and-off-again negotiations with the City of Auburn, CLT signed a lease agreement for the next 99 years at $1 per year. The lease agreement gives CLT full control of the theater wing of the Great Falls Performing Arts Center, providing for control of its home and control of its future.
Along with that control comes the responsibility of the operations and maintenance of the facilities, which will be no small task, according to Karen Mayo, president of CLT’s Board of Directors.
Lots to Garden offers fruits—and vegetables—of its labor
The St. Mary’s Nutrition Center was filled with amaranth, golden rod and mint as friends and allies of the Lots to Gardens program arrived for the annual Community Dinner hosted on August 29 by the 2011 Summer Youth Gardeners and Youth Interns.
The Summer Youth Gardeners are a crew of teenagers from Lewiston and Auburn that have spent their summer learning how to grow food, supporting adult community gardeners, participating in nutrition and cooking classes and developing leadership and job skills that they can use well after the program ends. This year 17 youth participated in the program.
As the night opened, Abdikadir Ismail, a Youth Intern with Lots to Gardens, welcomed attendees. “Our mission is to provide access to healthy food to our community,” said Ismail.
Mayor’s Corner: L-A supports victims of famine in Somalia, Kenya
By Laurent F. Gilbert Sr.
Mayor of Lewiston
On August 11, as I entered the Lost Valley Ski Area building to attend the monthly Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce Breakfast, I spoke with Dr. Abdifatah Ahmed, executive director of Atlantic Global Aid, and Mr. Hussein Ahmed, owner of the Barwaqo Halal Store at the corner of Lisbon and Chestnut Streets, where Dube Travel used to be located.
Chip Morrison, president of The Chamber, provided them with a spotlight location at the entrance where the breakfast was being held. They displayed photos of Somali children and families suffering from the drought and famine in Somalia and who were now in overflowing refugee camps in Kenya. They also provided pamphlets that explain the mission of Atlantic Global Aid (AGA), which is supporting a health care lifeline to Africa.
The pledge of Atlantic Global Aid, located right here in Auburn, is to “collaborate with state and local governments, civic nonprofit and international non-governmental organizations to improve the lives of the poor, help teach the youth to prepare for future leadership roles, and save children from the ravages of famine and drought.” The L-A outreach is to get medical supplies and nutritional supplements to Somalia and Kenya.
LETTER: District lines are like road kill on a map
To the Editor:
It has been a pleasure to watch the howls of outrage that have accompanied nearly every measure the Republican legislature has passed to dismantle the crony state the Democrats constructed in their 40-year reign in Augusta.
Of course, there were some things that not even the Dems could grouse about in public: the end of $3,000 lunches for bond salesmen, the end of tens of thousands of unaccounted for “gift certificates” by the turnpike authority, the end of welfare benefits for “undocumented” denizens, regulatory reform, etc.
But wherever they could complain with great vitriol, they did. Although most of them voted for the budget and the tax cuts, they certainly raised their voices in disdain—after the measures had safely passed. And they really didn’t like the reform that will allow Mainers to buy insurance across state lines. But since insurance costs less everywhere else in the U.S., they couldn’t get up any interest in trying to overturn that reform by People’s Veto.
LETTER: “Less-than-stellar teachers”
To the Editor:
Would Dick Sabine really have us believe that the poor performance of our communities’ students on the SAT is entirely to blame on their teachers? (Letter to the Editor: “School policies should be judged by a jury,” p. 3, TCT, August 25, 2011)
I have no doubt that there are some less-than-stellar teachers in our school system, just as there are some less-than-stellar workers in many of our other workplaces. But the idea that simply eliminating teacher tenure, even if that were feasible or desirable, would magically transform the performance of our students on the SAT is a bit hard for me to swallow.
Students are not passive vessels that simply “soak up” knowledge imparted to them by their teachers. Learning is an active process. Paying attention during lessons, taking notes, asking questions, practicing with the new material and studying are all crucial aspects of the student’s role in the process.
Collins: Are You Ready If Disaster Strikes?
By U.S. Senator Susan Collins
(R-Maine)
Tornadoes in Northern Maine? An earthquake along the East Coast? A hurricane in New England?
These are acts of Mother Nature that we don’t see very often, and we often have little to no time to prepare once—or if—we receive the warning.
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and devastating storms like Hurricane Katrina reinforced many of the lessons of preparedness and led to a law I coauthored to strengthen our nation’s capacity to respond to natural disasters, as well as terrorist attacks.
The government has established protocols that will help our country through natural disasters, disease pandemics, catastrophic accidents or vicious acts of terrorism. And your household should have them too.
Most eyes were on the skies during the 19th Annual Great Falls Balloon Festival, but David Damon looked down to shoot this happy photo. See more photos on pages 8 through 11 in the Aug. 25, 2011 Digital Edition.
Art Walk on Friday to be largest yet
On Friday, August 26, “Art Walk Lewiston Auburn” will once again transform the L-A Downtown with performances, artwork and people.
The Art Walk on Friday promises to be the largest so far. The event will feature fresh new artwork from local artists, such as Maine potter Richard Dahlquist and L-A’s own Hillary E. Dow, as well as more performance art elements.
Maine designer and sculptor Michael Good will be giving demonstrations on his fabrication techniques and singer/songwriter Kate Schrock will perform in Dufresne Plaza.
Barker Mill Trail in New Auburn to re-open after years of neglect
Tucked well below the elevation of Mill Street in New Auburn, the Barker Mill Trail was out of sight and out of mind, falling into years of neglect and becoming overgrown and impassable. Now, after a significant volunteer training day by the Maine Army National Guard, the Androscoggin Land Trust (ALT) and the United New Auburn Association are announcing a community work day to prepare this trail along the Little Androscoggin River for regular use.
The trailhead is just off the gate house for the Lower Barker Dam, one of two dams on the Little Androscoggin River that served to power the Barker Mill in its early days of textile production. The Barker Mill Trail follows the Little Androscoggin for a little over a mile before it rejoins Mill Street.
