This week’s edition!
Archive for June 2012
Collins: Be Prepared for Summer’s Severe Weather
By Senator Susan Collins
(R-Maine)
They say April showers bring May flowers. But a deluge in June doesn’t leave anything behind except a big mess to clean up.
Recent storms dumped more than eight inches of rain across parts of our state. Small streams quickly became rushing rivers, and big rivers like the Androscoggin and the Kennebec roared, spilling their banks in some areas. While crews are still assessing the damage, fortunately, it appears to be relatively minor in most communities.
June 1 marked the official start of the 2012 hurricane season. As the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, I have joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to help promote National Hurricane Preparedness Week.
“Opening of the Beach” celebration is June 16
The “Opening of the Beach” celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 16 at Auburn Municipal Beach. Rain date is Sunday, June 17.
While the beach will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m., the celebration will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be no lifeguard.
A proposal is being drafted to request an official name for the facility. The proposed name is Lake Grove Beach Park. This will recognize the history of recreational enjoyment of Lake Auburn.
Whitewater rafts to be used for Riverfront clean-up
The Androscoggin Land Trust (ALT) is excited to announce a partnership with Lewiston’s Baxter Brewing and Adventure Bound rafting of Caratunk, Maine to offer a major water-based clean-up effort for the Androscoggin River and its banks in Downtown Lewiston-Auburn on Sunday, June 17.
While regular volunteer efforts occur to clean the parks and trails dotting the banks of the river in Downtown L-A, this new initiative seeks to collect trash and debris that detracts from the stunning beauty of the river itself and its shoreline.
Knowing that that many hands make light work, but that much work is to be done, ALT has secured support from Adventure Bound to bring 10 whitewater rafts to assist in this effort. Volunteers will be assigned to the rafts and will take to the river in groups.
AMS Robotics Team brings home awards
Auburn Middle School’s five-member Robotics Team, consisting of eighth graders Harley Lombard, Ezra Thomas, Zach Johnson, Alex Breton and John Allain, recently brought home awards from a meet at Messalonskee Middle School.
Each member won a first-place trophy in their individual event, and the group placed second overall as a team.
The inventors, along with their coach-mentor Jim Rowe, had six weeks to design, build, program and then test, retest and even redesign their robots to meet the assigned engineering challenges. Except for Lombard, the inventors designed and built their own creations.
Lombard won the speed-build competition, having to memorize the plans for a 52-piece robot and build it from memory. He accomplished this feat in the shortest time of the competition: 3 minutes flat. Fellow team member Allain won the robot race competition.
Enough is Enough: LHS graduation marred by teens’ rude behavior
By Robert Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
Many came. Many left happy, too many left upset.
Pomp and Circumstance, just as promised. This was Lewiston High School’s graduation ceremony held last Friday at the Colisée.
The LHS staff, responsible for organizing and putting on the event, are to be congratulated: their efforts paid off in a ceremony second to none anywhere in this vast state. The many uncompensated hours by staff members shows their devotion to both LHS and Lewiston.
On the stage, members of the Lewiston School Committee and the high school’s administration awaited the honor of passing out diplomas, certifying the success achieved over the past four years through desire, hard work and sacrifice. On each side of the assembled seniors sat teachers beaming, watching the fruits of their labors file into the arena. Proud parents watched as the accomplishments of their sons and daughters reached fruition.
Lewiston man’s driver licenses on display at BMV
Today, June 7 at 4:30 p.m. at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Lewiston, Secretary of State Charlie Summers will unveil a photo timeline entitled, “License to Drive: A Timeline History of Driver’s Licenses in Maine Based on the Personal History Documents of One Man.”
The piece was created at the Maine State Archives and depicts the evolution of Maine’s Driver’s License over the course of one man’s life, thanks to a donation of vintage credentials made to the Department of the Secretary of State.
Marcel Caron of Auburn, contacted BMV regarding some very interesting documents he had come across. His grandfather, the late David E. Caron of Lewiston, had kept virtually every driver’s license that had been issued to him during his lifetime.
LETTER: “A bond is a fancy word for borrowing”
To the Editor:
Governor LePage has a habit of tactless and vehement speech, which has attracted the repeated (and repeated and repeated) attention of Maine’s media. Recently the Blaine House Brute said something so violent, so vile that our journalists and editors can’t even bring themselves to mention it: “A bond is a fancy word for borrowing money the state doesn’t have.”
I don’t bring this to your attention because I approve of such reckless rhetoric. Only because it is self-evidently true. Since the idea seems too complex for many people to grasp, let me try to put it in clearer, more accessible words: “A bond is just a word for borrowing money the state doesn’t have.”
There. Was that any help?
