Nov. 5, 2013 Elections: Municipal and state referendums, ordinance changes, candidates

ROCKLAND —Bob Liberty, owner of Trade Winds Motor Inn, is asking Rockland to sell him 221 square feet of land in order to be clear with the city about ownership of that small property that he originally thought he had purchased from Rockland in 2006.

The Rockland City Council discussed this May 6 at its agenda setting meeting at Rockland City Hall and agreed to put the matter on their May 13 meeting.

The discrepancy apparently results from the fact that at the time Liberty sold…

NEW YORK CITY — Melissa Kelly, executive chef and co-founder of Primo restaurant in Rockland, was named Best Chef for the Northeast region by the James Beard Foundation at a black tie gala at Lincoln Center in New York, Monday night.

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BELFAST - The 2013-14 budget approved by the Regional School Unit 20 board of directors on this Tuesday seemingly left little for anyone to be happy about — $1.7 million in cuts to the budget drew cries of too much from residents concerned about the effect on education, and too little from those concerned about taxes, which are expected to increase despite the cuts.

The no-win situation wasn't helped by an additional wave of anxiety that rippled through the district this week when it…

BELFAST - Last Thursday, Alexandra Chapin took her dog to the beach. She also took her camera in hopes of collecting portraits for her Facebook page Humans of Belfast.

Chapin started the project in the second week of April and has been adding around five photos a day. The images are usually of individual people, often posing, but there are also snapshots, group pictures and the…

It was a busy weekend for Genna Cherichello, Food Corps service member with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. On April 26, she helped Oceanside East’s High School Foundations Program plant an orchard beside the garden and near the school. The next day, she was at Medomak Valley High School, in Waldoboro, helping the horticulture, life skills and ceramics classes build an earth oven and pizza garden with a host of community partners.

“Trees are a way to teach patience and…

BELFAST - The streets of Belfast are flooded with people looking to get their music fix... of every type. The fourth annual celebration of Belfast's Free Range Music Festival is currently ongoing and we caught some of the acts earlier today. Just to give a sample of the diversity (not to mention the high quality acts) this Festival offers, check out our two-minute clips on Clio & Chloe, The Hips and Pete Witham & The Cozmik Zombies.

Clio & Chloe are 17 and…

BELFAST — Expansions by two Belfast businesses that were heralded earlier this year and given city-sponsorship for grant applications totalling over a half-million dollars have been taken off the table at the request of the businesses, according to Belfast Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge.

The City Council in January authorized three applications to the state-administered Community Development Block Grant program totaling $900,000.

Two of these were under the…

BELFAST- The waterfront was quiet on Sunday, but from Steamboat Landing to the Footbridge, evidence of the coming Belfast Harbor Walk was everywhere. The $1.5 million pedestrian and bicycle promenade has been a work in progress for several years, but until last week when workers broke ground at Steamboat landing, it had existed only on paper.

City officials anticipate the majority of the basic walkway will be completed by the end of June, with amenities like lights, benches and…

BELFAST - Early in his book What Matters in Medicine: Lessons from a Life in Primary Care, David Loxterkamp says that for as long as he could remember he wanted to be a doctor like his father Edward Otto Loxterkamp. It’s a claim that would sound glib if not for the striking similarities between their lives and the generational parallels within the profession they both chose.

His book chronicles…

BELFAST - Workers from Maine Earth, of Hampden, were busy laying down a double row of tall screening shrubs between Belfast Common and Steamboat Landing Monday in the first substantial work on the Belfast Harbor Walk project.

The estimated $1.5 million pedestrian and bicycle promenade is to span roughly two-thirds of a mile from Steamboat Landing at its southern end to the Armistice footbridge. Portions of…

THORNDIKE and UNITY - The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is seeking exemption from property taxes on the roughly 400 acres in two Western Waldo County towns where the organization has its headquarters. MOFGA filed for property tax exempt status in Thorndike and Unity in 2012. According to officials in both towns the applications are still under consideration.

Heather Spalding, Interim Executive Director of MOFGA, likened the move to an administrative formality. The…

CAMDEN — A Midcoast landmark, the Norumbega Inn at 63 High Street in Camden, welcomed new owners Sue Walser and Philip Crispo, who now have the daunting task of getting the building in working order for Memorial Day weekend.

Penobscot Bay Pilot stopped and spoke to the couple amid roofers, boxes, and plumbing issues. They seemed quite calm and taking it all in stride.

“It’s the rebirth of a castle, and there’s a lot of work to be done," said Sue. "Phil and I want people…

SEARSPORT - The Planning Board finished deliberations Thursday night on a proposed liquefied petroleum gas (propane) storage and distribution facility, ruling that the application by Denver, Colo.-based DCP Midstream did not comply with the town's land use ordinance and failed to meet established performance standards. 

A third vote found that the application complied with shoreland zoning rules, but in sum, the application was rejected.

BELFAST - Ducktrap River of Maine on Tuesday announced plans for a major expansion that would increase the size of its seafood smoking and processing facility by neary 50 percent, double the current processing capacity, and support the addition of 40 to 50 new jobs.

According to General Manager Don Cynewski, the expansion is necessary to keep up with sales, which he said have doubled over the last four years. Ducktrap's Norweigan parent company, Marine Harvest, is underwriting the…

SEARSPORT - The developer behind a controversial proposal to build a liquefield petroleum gas (LPG, or propane) terminal in Searsport has announced plans to withdraw its application from the town.

Denver Colorado-based DCP Midstream hoped to build a bulk storage and distribution import facility for LPG near Mack Point cargo port. Plans included a 22.7 million gallon storage tank that would have been among the largest on the East Coast.

BELFAST - What was life like during World War II, and how was it different than life during today's wars?

That was the big question posed to fifth graders from the Extended Learning program at three RSU 20 elementary schools. Starting last fall, they read five books set against the backdrop of the war, then interviewed community members who recalled the war years. In documenting what they learned, the students were asked to compare the sacrifices made during World War II to those being…

FRANKFORT - Voters on Thursday approved a measure to join Regional School Unit 22 by a margin of 181 to 59.

The vote was the last for Frankfort in a process that has stretched over several years, as residents have sought to leave the consolidated RSU 20 to join the neighboring district to the north.

On April 9, voters in the RSU 22 towns of Hampden, Newburgh and Winterport will hold referendums on a reorganization plan that would include accepting Frankfort into the district.…

SEARSPORT - Jamie Kilbreth, attorney for DCP Midstream, was brief in his closing remarks to the planning board Wednesday night. The answers to many of the big questions about the propane terminal proposed by his client, he said, had been covered in reviews by state and federal agencies. Virtually everything else, he said, was spelled out in the town's ordinance for industrial zones.

"A bulk fuel distribution facility up to 150 feet high is a permitted use. Legally, that is the end of…

BELFAST - Nicholas Berner and Nicholas Cabral, third year students at Maine Maritime Academy, recently made one of many trips from Castine to their new office in Belfast, an unassuming building off Swan Lake Avenue next to an unassuming river once connected to mill that no longer exists.

Such are the landmarks in rural Maine.

…

SEARSPORT - After nearly two years of debate culminating in a string of sometimes-heated public hearings, the Searsport Planning Board is scheduled to begin deliberations this Wednesday, March 27, on an application from Colorado-based DCP Midstream to build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane) terminal at Mack Point.Import-export question flares up on eve of Searsport LPG deliberations

SEARSPORT - After nearly two years of debate culminating in a string of sometimes-heated public hearings, the Planning Board is scheduled to begin deliberations next week on an application from Colorado-based DCP Midstream to build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane) terminal at Mack Point.

The "tank," as the terminal is sometimes referred to after its largest feature a 22.7-million-gallon storage tank, has generated a…

BELFAST - The City Council on Tuesday appointed Norman Poirier as the city's new Parks and Recreation Department director, filling a six-month vacancy and leaving city officials optimistic about the future of the department.

Poirier is currently director of parks, recreation and facilities for the town of Orono, a position he has held since 1989. He has a bachelor's degree in Health, Physical Education and Recreation from the University of Maine at Presque Isle and has a variety of…

PORTLAND - A Thorndike woman remains in critical condition after her SUV collided with a tractor trailer on the Unity Road in Benton Tuesday afternoon, according to a release from Maine Department of Public Safety. 

Troopers said 65 year old Jeannine Ann lost control of her 2003 Ford Explorer on the snow covered road and it slid into the other lane and was struck broadside by the tractor trailer. 

The driver of the truck was Michael Hogan, 31, of Bangor, who was not injured. The…

BELFAST - Organizers of the Belfast Free Range Music Festival on Friday began releasing the names of acts to perform at this year's installment of the day-long, multi-venue festival (disclosure: the writer is one of them).

The event, which takes place on April 27…

WALDO COUNTY - Democracy is messy as the adage goes, and the kind practiced at annual town meetings around Maine is no exception. Some towns have become known for hot debates on a particular issue, while others make a safe bet any year for a squabble or a perennial feud inflamed (and yes, some sail through without much to talk about).

But even at their ugliest, town meetings don't have the political party struggles that bog down the democratic process at the state and federal levels.…

SEARSPORT - A vote Saturday on what was arguably the biggest item on the warrant at Searsport's annual town meeting — an allocation of up to $762,000 for a new North Searsport fire station — had to be rescheduled after town firefighters were called away to a fire.

Town Manager James Gillway said he and several others had spoken about the fire station appropriation and a related vote on the land for the new building when a call came in for a possible wood stove fire. The vote was pushed…

SEARSPORT - Tallies from municipal elections held Tuesday showed Meredith Ares besting Travis Otis in a race for a vacant seat on the town's select board, but only by two votes. A recount held Thursday upheld the initial results but narrowed the margin of victory to a single vote. The final count: Ares 155, Otis 154.

The close contest was for a seat on the five-member board vacated by two-term selectman Roland LaReau, who did not seek re-election.…

BELFAST - Steve Hutchings, the Belfast Area High School Teacher who started the effort now underway in six towns of former School Administrative District 34 to back out of the consolidated Regional School Unit 20, recounted on Tuesday his first discussion with Maine Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Jim Rier.

Hutchings explained the plan, after which he said there was a long pause. When Rier spoke again, he was blunt. “Do you have any clue…

UNITY - Jere Humphey, owner of Last Chance Racing Supplies & Race Fuel announced he has signed a lease to operate Unity Raceway for the 2013 season.

In a statement on the raceway's website, Humphrey said Last Chance will run a…

I have experienced my fair share of predawn excursions over the course of my exchange. While living with my first host family, I fled Belgium under starry skies for Paris, England, and the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. Most Rotary exchange students in Belgium have three host families, and I moved in with my second at the beginning of January. Though living with a new family has changed my life in many ways, pulling myself out of bed at 4am, piling into their loaded van, and…

BELFAST - One of the massive yellow and black things on the Belfast waterfront Thursday was a crane. But you've probably guessed that.

The others, according to James Harkins, project manager for Keeley Crane Service, are dock fenders built specifically for a nuclear submarine. 

The fiberglass shells of the school bus-sized (and colored) bumpers were fabricated in Augusta by Kenway Corp. then brought to Belfast for assembly at Front Street Shipyard during the past month, Harkins…

STOCKTON SPRINGS - The Regional School Unit 20 board of directors on Tuesday approved a plan that would relocate Stockton Springs Elementary School students to Searsport and open the school building to a new pre-K program run by Broadreach Family & Community Services.

The plan, which is the latest in an ongoing effort by the district to cut costs, would create a net savings of $190,800 according to finance committee chairman Gerald Reid. Reid said there would be some revenue from…

SEARSPORT - Public hearings by the planning board on a proposed propane terminal officially came to a close on Monday night but not without a fight from opponents who protested with shouts and signs that their right to speak had been cut short.

The Feb. 25 meeting, which included cross examination of officials and expert witnesses and comments from the general public, marked the end of a series of hearings that began last November and has stretched over a dozen nights in the…

BELFAST - Gabrielle Eiholzer and Opal Ash were about to relax after a round of photos in the Council chambers at City Hall, when a woman's voice could be heard urging them to stay for a few more shots. "I assume you're only doing this once," she said.

It was a boilerplate marriage joke (i.e. don't get divorced), and appropriately so.

Several minutes later Eiholzer and Ash would become the first same-sex couple to be legally married in Belfast. But in the two-steps-forward-one-…

BELFAST — A Waldo County grand jury handed down 38 indictments against 36 people when it concluded its work in Belfast Feb. 13.

One of those named was Jason Beal, 23, of Belfast, who was indicted for six counts each of burglary and theft by unauthorized taking Nov. 8, 9 and 10, 2012.

Beal is accused of breaking into homes in Belfast, half of which were occupied at the time with homeowners asleep, and seemingly unaware. One of those burglaries was at a home with an elderly female…

ROCKLAND — The following divorces were recorded at the Knox County courthouse during the month of January.

Wayne D. Young of Vinahaven and Shannon D. Young of Jackson, Tenn., married June 10, 2006, in Camden and divorced Jan. 8, 2013.

Robert R. Tassi of Rockport and Dawn S. Tassi of Cushing, married Oct 7, 1996, in South Berwick and divorced Jan. 8, 2013.

Jeffery L. Williams (no town given) and Crecita R. Williams of Brooklyn, N.Y., married May 6, 1995, in Ossining, N.Y.,…

BELFAST - Front Street Shipyard supersized its plans for a new travel lift this week, upgrading from a 300-ton to a 485-ton (440-metric ton) model.

The hoist is part of a planned expansion, first announced in November 2012, that would allow the Shipyard to service larger vessels, up to 150 feet in length.

In January, city officials amended a contract rezoning agreement with the Shipyard to allow for the marine portion of the plan to go forward, including an expansion of the pier…

BELFAST - There's a building just south of Belfast's central intersection best described as home to High Street Market and La Vida Restaurant. It's also home to three apartments on the second floor, which were the catalyst for an exterior makeover that has kept the building shrouded in scaffolding for most of the winter.

Owner Jeff Littlefield had long wanted to spruce up the facade and replace the…

SEARSPORT - Mike Lucy, of the security consulting firm Good Harbor offered a glimpse into the mind of a risk assessment expert on Monday night as he tried to focus a laser pointer on a video projection of plans for a large-scale propane terminal at Mack Point. 

"Make sure I don't zap anybody's eye," he said to no one in particular, as the red dot appeared on the screen.

Lucy and Frank Gallagher of Good Harbor opened their presentation on Monday to the Searsport Planning Board by…

SEARSPORT - Former national security advisor Richard Clarke is expected to testify before the Searsport Planning Board Monday, Feb. 11, as hearings on a proposed large-scale propane terminal continue this week.

The development by Colorado-based DCP Midstream would include a 23-million gallon bulk storage tank for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), distributed commercially as propane.

Clarke's security consulting firm Good Harbor was hired by Islesboro Islands Trust to perform an "all…

BELFAST - Julie Romano may not have been the first to ink a deal with Coastal Farms Food Processing, but when the facility's commercial kitchen opened last summer, she was quick to get in the door, and quicker to get her products — salsa and tabouli, sold under the brand name Julie Ann's Outrageous! Foods — out to market. 

In early September last year, she delivered her first batch to the Belfast…

Road crews and public works departments in Rockland and Camden are prepared for heavy snowfall late Friday into Saturday.

On Thursday, Feb. 7, Rockland Public Works Director Greg Blackwell said his crew of 15 is "ready to roll." The department's salt shed is chock full of approximately 100 tons of salt. They also have about 4,000 yards of sand, which he said typically lasts for an entire winter.

Road crews in Rockland will begin before snowfall gets too heavy. As the first…

ROCKLAND — Rockland City Councilors will vote Monday whether or not to approve the acquisition of a $50,000 bond to fund a drainage project to stem erosion before it becomes a more expensive issue. Residents out for a stroll Wednesday afternoon in the 1970s-era Pen Bay Acres development, uphill of busy Route 1, expressed their support for the project as engineer Andrew Hedrich led a tour along Acadia Drive with city officials in tow.

Hedrich is with the Camden-based engineering and…

BELFAST - Front Street Shipyard may start work as soon as today on a series of marine improvements, according to Shipyard President JB Turner, who confirmed that the company has received required permits from Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers. The City Council approved the plans Tuesday night, which would include an addition to the Shipyard's travel lift pier to accommodate a new 340-ton lift. 

The…

BELFAST — Carlene Perkins Thornton of Liberty had been singing lead vocals with the Juke Rockets for a little over a year when the band won a statewide competition last fall and a trip to the 29th annual International Blues Competition in Memphis, Tenn.

The IBC was held last week, and though the Juke Rockets were knocked out in the early rounds, it didn't stop the band from having a great time. PenBayPilot caught up with Perkins Thornton, who was back at work in Belfast Tuesday but…

CAMDEN — Since 1955, Harold Drinkwater has been responding to calls for fires, accidents, flooded basements, and most recently, traffic control. August 2013 will mark his 58th year with the Camden Fire Department, and during Monday night's training, Atlantic Engine Company #2 surprised him with a special honor.

Camden's newest fire apparatus - a big, red, shiny, state of the art Dash-CF multi-purpose vehicle built by Pierce Manufacturing in Wisconsin – now proudly bears the names "…

ROCKLAND — A cloudless sky and bright sunshine did little to ease the cold temperature around Chickawaukie Pond, where Rockland first responders were learning and practicing ice rescue skills Saturday.

True ice emergencies don't happen often in the Midcoast, but they can be deadly when they do and emergency responders train for them annually.

Chickawaukie Pond was the site of a tragic ice boating accident that claimed the life of 52-year-old Mark McClellan of Rockland Dec. 20,…

BELFAST — For years Maine lobster fishermen have felt caught in a system governed by big seafood processors in Canada. Maine Maritime Products is not expecting that to change overnight, but the Belfast company is hoping to offer some of the same services locally and is seeking state funding to help do it.

On Tuesday, the Belfast City Council endorsed a letter of interest on behalf of Maine Maritime Products seeking $500,000 from…

BELFAST - During his 28 years at the U.S. Postal Service's Belfast office, Steve Clark, who is retiring this week, developed a memorable style of customer service.

It wasn't the way he posted envelopes or quizzed you on the contents of your packages — "any perishables, liquids or hazardous materials?" — though he often did these with a kind of theatrical flair.

What set him apart was his determination to cheer up anyone who looked like they needed it. And if you lived here long…

BELFAST - It was on a break from college, visiting the family of his future-wife, that Brian McCarthy tasted dilly beans for the first time. His thought at the time was: why have I never had these before?

The short answer is that he grew up in Ohio, and dilly beans are fairly specific to New England — his wife is from Maine and the recipe was one passed down from her grandmother. But the question, like any that accompanies a minor epiphany, had more to it than that.

Over a…

BELFAST – Jan Anderson was serving on the City Council in 2009 when she first shared her vision of Belfast becoming a regional storage and processing hub for farmers and food entrepreneurs. Her hope was to convince her fellow councilors to invest in the idea as an economic development initiative.

What the city needed, she said, was a centrally located, state-of-the-art facility with abundant frozen and dry storage for local produce, a shared commercial kitchen, and the potential for a…

BELFAST - Last week we outlined the broad strokes of the new Regional School Unit 20 teachers' contact, which was ratified by the school board on Tuesday after four years of negotiations.

The actual contract was not available at the time of the ratification. What was known then was that the teachers were in their third year with no contract — a period of time…

STOCKTON SPRINGS - After four years of negotiations and three years of no contract, teachers and staff from Regional School Unit 20 reached an agreement with the district's board of directors on a contract that reportedly closes the salary gap between teachers from the two preconsolidated school districts.

School Administrative Districts 34 (Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Northport, Searsmont and Swanville) and 56 (Frankfort, Searsport and Stockton Springs) were joined in 2009 as part of a…

BELFAST - A grant proposal to fund new seating and lighting on the footbridge captured the imaginations of local residents over the past three months, but was apparently not as compelling to the national arts funding organization…

MORRILL - Two years ago, Russell Manton was on the verge of making the kind of business decision that might have earned him an invitation to a state functions as an example of Maine, or maybe American, ingenuity. So counter-intuitive and open to patriotic interpretation was it.

And it almost worked.

Manton’s office is in Morrill. The products he sells — electronic door locks and bedbug-blocking…