This week’s edition!
Archive for September 2011
Auburn Fire Dept. to hold 9/11 ceremony, blood drive
The Auburn Fire Department and Auburn Firefighters Local 797 will be hosting a 10-Year Anniversary Ceremony in memory of 9/11 and a blood drive on Sunday.
A full day of remembrance is planned on Sunday, Sept. 11 at the Auburn Fire Station at 550 Minot Ave., marking significant moments that occurred during the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
The Auburn Fire Department has partnered with the American Red Cross to host a blood drive at the station, which will begin at 8:46 a.m. and end at 1 p.m. This start time is significant because it marks the moment the first plane struck the World Trade Center.
Treasurer: Tell the truth, then fix Maine’s problems
By Bruce Poliquin
Maine State Treasurer
On August 16, State Senator Cynthia Dill (D–Cape Elizabeth) penned an Op/Ed in the Portland Press Herald, accusing Governor LePage and me for “brand(ing) Maine as an unsophisticated salvage state.” She scolded us for claiming “how bad a place Maine is compared to New Hampshire” for doing business.
The Senator then touted Maine as being “among the best places to live, raise children and start a business.”
Sometimes the truth hurts. At all times, the truth is necessary. So let’s tell some truths.
Senator Dill has been in the Legislature for nearly five years. During that time, the pension debt for teachers and state employees ballooned to $4.1 billion. The annual taxpayer contributions to pay off this monster debt were spiking. Funding for essential government services, like public education and road construction, was being crowded out.
Lewiston casino question to be on ballot
Secretary of State Charlie Summers held a public drawing last week to determine the order of the citizen initiative questions that will appear on the November 8 Referendum Election ballot, including a question about the proposed casino in Lewiston.
The questions that are slated to appear on the November 8 ballot are:
Citizen Initiative 1: Do you want to allow a slot machine facility at a harness racing track in Biddeford or another community within 25 miles of Scarborough Downs, subject to local approval, and at a harness racing track in Washington County, with part of the profits from these facilities going to support specific state and local programs?
Citizen Initiative 2: Do you want to allow a casino with table games and slot machines in Lewiston, with part of the profits going to support specific state and local programs?
Mayor’s Corner: Ten years later, has 9/11 made us better or worse as a nation?
By Laurent F. Gilbert Sr.
Mayor of Lewiston
Ten years ago, our nation suffered one of the most significant tragedies in our history. On this important anniversary of that sad day, we remember the nearly 3,000 people who left their homes that morning ready to go about their work.
In an instant they were torn from their loved ones forever. Their families still carry losses that will never in this life be filled; and our country was forever changed.
I remember that morning well. I was in Auburn, and in a place of business there I saw on television the buildings of the World Trade Center ablaze with heavy smoke pouring from several floors. I immediately called my wife, Pat, and told her about it. I then called my daughter Karla, as she worked in Boston for United Airlines.
6th Annual Chefs Soirée at Nutrition Center of Maine
Sample great food and wines, watch food preparation and cooking demonstrations, and take home the recipes from the Sixth Annual Chefs Soirée! This year’s Soirée will be held on September 30 at the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, 208 Bates St. in Lewiston. The fun begins at 5:30 p.m.
Paul Landry, owner of Fish Bones American Grill, will be accompanied by his restaurant’s Chef/General Manager David Moyse. Dan Caron, director of The Green Ladle (Lewiston High School’s Culinary Arts Program) and Katie Liguori, instructor and pastry chef at the Green Ladle, will join the festivity along with some amazing students as they engage and impress the crowd.
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.
