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Auburn Community Concert Band kicks off 32nd season
The Auburn Community Concert Band, under the direction of Milt Simon, will kick off its annual summer series of
Bath House & Garden Tour
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Hyde School, based in this Colonial Revival mansion on grounds originally landscaped by Carl Rust Parker, marks the starting point of this year’s Bath House & Garden Tour on Saturday, June 15.
Letters: Preservationists see the value of churches
To the Editor:
I found the column penned by Lewiston Mayor Robert E. Macdonald (“Enough is Enough: Churches were Lewiston’s social and religious centers,” June 6) a curious read, running interference as I take it, for Central Maine Healthcare.
Rather than defend his city’s rich social and religious ethnic heritage, Macdonald aims his brickbats at those who have come forward to defy the political and economic establishment to defend the civic culture: the historic preservationists. Mayor Macdonald composes his words to defend the entity that would raze St. Joseph’s church for a parking lot.
For some reason, Macdonald reminds me of the mayor of Amity Island in the movie “Jaws.” Mayor Larry Vaugan refused to let police chief Martin Brodie post the beaches off limits after the first shark attack. Vaugan was afraid of ruining the tourist season and offending powerful beachfront hotel owners.
Enough is Enough: Legislators want to expand welfare, but ignore our most needy
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
They are truly God’s children. Perhaps that is why they have been left on the side of the road by our ever-increasing secular society.
You will never hear them asking for or demanding government assistance. You will never hear them at all. They represent a moral and societal debt that must be paid if we wish to continue to exist and call ourselves a civilized society. They are those among us that unfortunately have been born with severe mental disability.
Our society, which continues to pat itself on the back for projecting a philanthropic attitude toward those labeled as “down trodden,” continues to ignore the basic needs of unquestionably our most vulnerable.
Growing up, they did not sneak around with their peers to participate in a rite of passage known as under-aged drinking. Growing up, they did not experiment with the illegal drug du jour.
Growing up, they required constant, dedicated care and attention by family, teachers and societal agency staff. They will need this care until they are called from this Earth.
Today in Maine our legislators make sure that money is available for those who flock to Maine, many with their GPS programmed for Lewiston, to obtain the generous welfare benefits offered by our caring Legislature. But for 3,100 of our most needy, those who cannot survive without assisted living, the funding for home- or community-based care is not available.
CLT’s “Odd Couple” opens this weekend
CLT’s production of the “Odd Couple” opens June 7. Clockwise from left are Jason Pelletier (“Speed”), Bernie Button (“Roy”), Roger Philippon (“Oscar”), Paul Menezes (“Vinnie”) and Phil Vampatella (“Murray”). Other cast members include Eric Brakey, Pat Freestone Phillips and Andrea Quaid.
Moxie Recipe Contest draws celebrity judges
Moxie Recipe Contest coordinator Julie-Ann Baumer has recruited a panel of celebrity judges for this year’s event, taking place Friday, July 12 at Chummy’s Midtown Diner in Lisbon.
Letters: Schools are manned by excellent people
To the Editor:
This is a response to a Letter to the Editor from Dick Sabine, “Children in L-A have no voice in education,” which was published April 25 in Twin City TIMES.
Mr. Sabine, in his article on education in Lewiston-Auburn, seemed to go to great lengths to compare our great cities with Florida and Vermont in how proficient our young students are compared to them. He uses Hispanics and blacks in Florida and mostly whites in Vermont to compare against our students. Isn’t this like comparing apples with oranges?
Enough is Enough: Churches were Lewiston’s social and religious centers
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
Over the past few years, many of our older lifelong residents have expressed sorrow over the closing of St. Patrick’s and St. Joseph’s Catholic Churches. In bygone days these parishes served as the social and religious centers for many residents in our community.
But all things come to an end. Over the years attendance at Sunday Mass has greatly diminished. At age 66, they refer to me as “The Kid” at the Mass I attend on Sunday. For any entity to survive, it needs new blood.
Over the years the fiscal prowess of the State of Maine has been on a steady decline. Many of our bright young people have been forced to leave our community and state in order to pursue their chosen careers. Deaths in Maine now outnumber births. However, like the Phoenix, our city is slowly and steadily resurrecting itself.
Enough is Enough: While politicians fiddle, taxpayers worry about property taxes.
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
I have not seen this level of “tuning up” since I left the Lewiston Police Department. Senate President Justin Alfond and Speaker of the House Mark Eves are acting like a pair of street-wise, thug cops in an off-the-wall police show. Their target, the short tempered Governor of Maine, Paul LePage.
I like Governor Paul LePage. Whether you agree with him or not, you must concede that he has brought to the forefront the dire fiscal mess we currently find ourselves in. His use of the bully pulpit wards off the ability of the Democrats to brush off our fiscal distress as nothing more than a bump in the road.
But Governor, you must learn to control your temper or it will become your downfall. Like experienced cops, Senator Alfond and Representative Eves have zeroed in on this major flaw and are going to exploit it for all it’s worth—along with their allies in the press—until they run you out of office.
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