|
|
Terry Pinkham (front) and Mark Esterbook enjoy a ride on their homemade tandem bicycle in August 1966. Beloved dog Sam hitches a ride in back.
|
|
|
Dear Bullecateers: It's Thursday, September 10. It's national indoor plant week, so ... there's that.
|
|
RSU 24 OPENS UNDER HYBRID MODEL
As the buses rolled up to the K-eighth grade Peninsula School early Tuesday morning, Roxanne Renwick had been looking forward to welcoming and shepherding her masked pupils into the (very clean) building. To teach young children how to physically distance and stay safe, the kindergarten teacher planned to read aloud Laurie Isop’s “How Do You Hug a Porcupine?” Renwick is among Regional School Unit 24’s faculty and staff who headed back to teaching Sept. 8 at Sumner Memorial High School and the K-eighth grade Cave Hill, Ella Lewis, Mountain View and Peninsula schools. “I am not nervous about starting,” Renwick said last week. “I have been blessed with a strong administration and team of colleagues working together to be prepared the best we can."
ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUESTS UP
Requests for absentee ballots have come fast and furious in recent weeks, and so has the confusion around absentee voting. But clerks have a message for voters: if you've requested an absentee ballot, they won't have it until at least October. “People are thinking that they’re already getting the ballot, that we’re going to mail one right then,” said Ellsworth City Clerk Heidi-Noël Grindle. “We’re not even going to have them until Oct. 2. We don’t actually have ballots right now. We just can take the requests.” Grindle said the ballots typically aren’t finalized until the end of September, per city and state rules. “I don’t even know that they have all the candidates yet,” she added, noting that, “Our nomination papers aren’t due back until Sept. 18.” The news was the same around the county: “I’ve got people calling, coming into the office, wanting to vote right here right now,” said Jacob Gran, town clerk in Bucksport. “We’re not going to have the ballots for another month . I don’t recall ever working an election where people started requesting absentee ballots this early.”
JAIL WORKS TO PREVENT OUTBREAK
With a coronavirus outbreak at the York County Jail stemming in part from a wedding in Millinocket making national headlines, it's natural to ask: how safe are inmates in Hancock County Jail? “All of us at the Hancock County Jail take the threat of this virus very seriously,” said Jail Administrator Timothy Richardson. “This is a topic of conversation every day as we review our inventory of personal protective equipment for the jail staff and residents of the facility. All of us at the Hancock County Jail are adjusting daily to this virus and will continue this practice." Staff have limited those who are allowed inside, and those who do enter must have their temperature taken. “When an arrestee enters the facility, they are asked to wear a mask,” Richardson added. “Hancock County Jail staff wear masks while interacting with new arrestees and quarantined inmates."
|
|
MPA ANNOUNCES DECISION ON SPORTS
At long last, the verdict is in. High school sports will be offered in Maine this fall after the Maine Principals’ Association received approval from state agencies on a framework for a 2020 season, though not all activities have been cleared to return. Golf, cross-country, field hockey and soccer will be offered with football and volleyball set to be moved to the spring. The MPA made the announcement Thursday, one day after members of the state agencies met in Augusta to hash out the final parameters for the fall season. The governing body informed member schools of the decision in an email that included guidelines for a return to play for all sports. Golf and cross-country, the two “low-risk” sports under the state’s guidelines on community sports, have been approved on a statewide basis. Field hockey and soccer, which are designated as “moderate-risk” activities, may return on a regional basis only.
TRADEWINDS GAS STATIONS SOLD
Chuck and Belinda Lawrence have sold most of their gas stations, convenience stores and car washes to Energy North, a Lawrence, Mass.-based company, which bought the Tradewinds locations in Ellsworth, Orland, Veazie, Hampden, Brewer, Old Town, Eddington and Bangor. “Convenience stores are challenging,” said Chuck. “You need to have a lot of them [to compete]. I either needed to increase my stores tremendously or sell. I made the decision to sell the stores.” Don't worry too much though: the Lawrences will continue to operate their Tradewinds grocery stores in Blue Hill and Calais. Lawrence said he’d built the convenience stores thinking of his sons, but two are pursuing other careers. “Two of my sons didn’t want to be in the business and I really built the convenience stores for them,” he said. “My roots are in a supermarket, and that’s what I want to get back to.”
|
|
|
|
Boaters, motorcyclists and a good number of pickup truck owners participated in a Labor Day rally for President Trump’s re-election. The Trump 2020 Boat and Bike Parade started in Bucksport at 1 p.m. and proceeded by road and river to Bangor. There were about 20 boats and 100 vehicles gathered downtown in Bucksport by midday. HANS KRICHELS PHOTO
|
|
REPORT ENVISIONS CITY IN 2120
It's a fair bet that most of us won't be around then (fingers crossed for cryogenic freezing), but our kids and grandkids will, and if things continue the way they're going, all land in the city that is suitable for development will be built out within roughly 100 years. City residents want to make sure that growth is well managed, which is the idea behind a report released in late July by Frenchman Bay Conservancy (FBC), which commissioned a build-out analysis from consulting firm FB Environmental intended to identify places with development potential as well as areas that should be protected. If no changes are made to zoning ordinances and growth and development constraints stay the same, the city will be “fully built out by the early to mid-22nd century,” meaning all of the available 25,167 acres of buildable land (more than half of the city) will be developed. The report notes that growth would be most profound in the Rural Zone, which has the greatest number of buildable acres (14,307) and would eventually have the highest number of projected buildings under the fully built-out scenario, a total of 10,839, or an 839 percent increase from the 1,154 buildings that are there now. “If we don’t take the time now to think about where new buildings will be constructed, we stand to lose vital farmland and large tracts of forest, and to jeopardize water quality. So, the buildout analysis is a tool to help us plan,” said FBC Executive Director Aaron Dority.
|
|
|
|
Following a midday rally for President Donald Trump in Bucksport on Monday, a different group of more than two dozen area residents gathered that afternoon to make their own political statement. Carrying signs that said, “Black Lives Matter” and “Make Peace Not War,” they lined the sidewalk of the bridge to Verona Island. HANS KRICHELS PHOTO
|
|
HOMELESS MAN'S SISTER FRUSTRATED WITH SYSTEM
A homeless man whose sister says he is mentally ill and unable to care for himself was released from jail Friday on personal recognizance bail, but really needs to be hospitalized, said Claire Murphy. “He doesn’t have the sense to come in out of the cold." Claire said her brother, Edward Victor Murphy, 56, who was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass on Sept. 3 in connection with an incident at the Emmaus Center, suffers from bipolar disorder and has delusions of grandeur. Claire said she has struggled to get her brother treatment because he is not homicidal or suicidal, but he can't care for himself. In Maine, only a law enforcement officer or healthcare provider can commit someone to a psychiatric hospital against his or her will; a complicated process generally used only in cases in which the person in question has a mental illness and poses a likelihood of serious harm.
|
|
AID SLOW IN COMING TO FISHERMEN
Maine fishermen who saw their incomes gutted by the pandemic but who weren't initially eligible for unemployment insurance benefits will likely have to wait a bit longer for their checks. In an email last week, Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher sought to tamp down some rumors (no, DMR is not going to keep 50 percent of the CARES Act funds) and update commercial fishermen, dealers, processors, aquaculturists and the members of the party and charter boat fleet on the money's distribution. But it might not be anytime soon: the CARES Act has strict requirements for who qualifies for payments, including that individual recipients must certify that they have experienced a greater than 35 percent loss of revenue compared to their previous five-year average as a result of the pandemic. For many fishermen, that could be a tough requirement to meet, depending on the adequacy of their financial records, and DMR is trying to figure out if it can help by analyzing whether it can use the landings data it has for the commercial fishing industry to certify the loss at the level of the individual. If that works, Keliher said, “it will mean that approximately 7,500 license holders don’t have to all do it themselves.”
JORDAN RIVER AQUACULTURE LEASE PROPOSED
Get out those shucking knives: the Department of Marine Resources has scheduled a preliminary review of an application for a 2.96-acre aquaculture lease for a company looking to grow urchins and oysters in the Jordan River in Lamoine. The draft application filed by Ocean Resources Inc. calls for a 20-year lease to grow as many as 18,000 green sea urchins and 18,000 American oysters annually using suspended culture methods on a site located just south of an existing mussel seed conservation area within the towns of Lamoine and Trenton. Suspended culture includes the use of gear like plastic oyster bags and wire cages floating on the surface, suspended in the water column or resting on the sea floor. The scoping session, intended to give the lease applicant an opportunity to explain the tentative proposal to the public and for interested people to provide feedback on the proposal before a final application is filed, is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, at Lamoine State Park.
|
|
INTERACTIVE, MAGNETIZED PAINTINGS ON VIEW
What if you could take Salvador Dali’s most famous painting, “The Persistence of Memory,” and swap the gold pocket watch and face-down clock covered with ants? Or, move Edvard Munch’s howling figure in “The Scream” elsewhere on the bridge? Orono painter Christina Thwaites wants you to do just that. The mother of two has created a body of work in which the viewer can literally play with the paintings’ composition and storylines: In “Enough to Share,” for instance, you can give the bearded, bib overall clad fishermen each a salmon to hold or make the fish swim above their heads. Or, in “Two Sisters and a Chicken,” you can perch the chicken on one of the little girls. Want to see for yourself? You're in luck: Thwaites "Magnetic Paintings" exhibit is on view at the Courthouse Gallery Fine Art through Oct. 30 or you can just pop on over to courthousegallery.com. The show is free, and the British-born artist will talk about her magnetic process and show how to interact with the paintings at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 16, via Zoom.
ABBE RETURNS ARTIFACTS TO TRIBES
From our friends over at the Mount Desert Islander: Imagine if the bones of someone in your bloodline were on display, or stored in a drawer, in a museum. “You’d feel a little spooked going into that place,” said Chris Newell, executive director and senior partner to the Wabanaki Nations at the Abbe Museum. Newell is also a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township and expert in helping schools, museums and other institutions get better at teaching Native American history. “Generations before mine generally didn’t go into museums,” said Newell. “You’ll see native people in tribal museums but not so much in colonial museums.” From a native perspective, Newell explained, museums in the European tradition are “colonial artifacts.” To help right the balance, the Abbe has now repatriated 937 unassociated funerary objects to the Wabanaki Repatriation Committee, including some from sites in Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, Northeast Harbor and Swan’s Island. Unassociated funerary objects are objects which were placed with or near human remains as part of a death rite or ceremony, but the human remains are not presently in the possession or control of a federal agency or museum. These are “not just artifacts to the communities that are involved,” Newell said. “They have a sense of life of their own, therefore we call them ancestors.” They are “living beings and they’re being kept away from their home.” Subscribe to the Islander yeah yeah yeah!
|
|
RV CAMPGROUND RETREAT'S FIRST PHASE WINS APPROVAL
Robin and Peggy Lawton of Sarasota, Fla., bought the 33-acre parcel of land on West Bay Road in part to solve a problem: they were always having to book months ahead for their annual Maine vacation. Like many of those who finally see the light of the Pine Tree State, they took the plunge last year, scooping up their own scenic, secluded land where they could park, live, recreate and work remotely. But then the couple had another thought: they could develop the parcel into a spot for campers like them. As of last week, they're a step closer: the Gouldsboro Planning Board unanimously approved plans for a 26-site recreational vehicle retreat offering privacy, high-speed internet and unspoiled views of West Bay. “There are so many people like us. They want a home,” said Robin. “They want to bring their RV into the property as though they owned it themselves.”
|
|
|
|
Members of the Ellsworth Garden Club hard at work on a recent Thursday.
|
|
SOLAR FARM BEING CONSIDERED IN EAST BLUE HILL
If you can't keep track of all the solar projects being proposed in the county, you're not alone. That's why you have us! Here's one to add to the list: the largest privately owned commercial solar company in the United States is exploring the feasibility of a solar farm in East Blue Hill. “Borrego Solar is pursuing a project in Blue Hill, Maine, and is still in the early stages of working with Versant Power to determine the project’s feasibility,” said Ryan Bailey, Borrego project developer. “If Versant determines the project can connect to the power lines as designed, discussions with the town will begin, likely this month or in October.” The town hasn't yet gotten any applications, said Blue Hill Town Administrator Shawna Ambrose. The company is also planning a 19.9-acre farm in Sedgwick off Caterpillar Hill, with construction slated to start in the spring, and another in Orland. |
|
|
Heard Around Town: Chadbourne Davis of Castine recently started his freshman year at Brandeis University. The George Stevens Academy and Adams School grad is majoring in computer science. An honor student and National Merit Society semifinalist, Chad has worked for four years at the Castine Golf Club’s golf shop. He best exemplifies “qualities of leadership, responsibility, integrity and sportsmanship” sought in candidates competing for the 2020 Caldy Award given to him by the Hatch Community Fund’s board of directors. He is the son of Delacroix Davis and Sally Chadbourne. The Caldy is an educational award of $500 given in memory of Alexander Caldwell Whitridge, who died in a 2012 car accident at age 25. He was the son of Serena and Fred Whitridge and grandson of Frank and Serena Hatch of Castine. Frank Hatch was one of the two Hatches for whom the Hatch Community Youth Fund was named. Pictured (from left) are the Hatch Fund board’s head Andrea Hatch, Marianne Buchanan, Chad Davis, Sally Chadbourne, Delacroix Davis and PGA Pro Noah Tapley of the Castine Golf Club.
|
|
|
|
