Westbrook Rep. Proposes $100M Transportation Bond

PPH:

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Ann Peoples, would allocate $65 million to road and bridge repairs, $20 million to improve rail lines, $10 million for public transportation and $5 million for pedestrian trails. It is too early in the process to determine the specific projects that would receive funding.

- John C.L. Morgan

Kennebec Smeltin'

maine.:

We’re driving through the Kennebec River towns north of Merrymeeting Bay, looking for fishing camps. Catching a bucket of smelt is our goal. But the frozen surfaces are thinner than usual this year, where there’s ice at all...[t]hin, silvery-pink fish often not much longer than an outstretched hand, rainbow smelt are known to live primarily in saltwater bays, but spawn in fresh water--famously, under the ice of the Kennebec River.

 John C.L. Morgan

Related: Ice Breaker (March 23, 2009)

Mayor Hilton Joins Group of Maine Mayors Focusing on Economic Matters

Morning Sentinel:

The group, Mayors Coalition on Jobs and Economic
Development, includes mayors from Auburn, Augusta, Bangor, Biddeford, Lewiston,
Portland, Saco, South Portland, Waterville and Westbrook. Its first targets are
changes to the state General Assistance program proposed by Gov. Paul
LePage.

- John C.L. Morgan

Westbrook Joins Cities in Political Fight Over General Assistance Funding

PPH:

[Gov. Paul LePage's] plan calls for the most
far-reaching change to Maine’s General Assistance funding in 20 years, said
Portland Mayor Michael Brennan."It will increase local property taxes and make
hundreds of people homeless in Portland," he said. Portland is joining with nine
other cities--Biddeford, Bangor, Lewiston, Auburn, Waterville, Augusta, Saco,
Westbrook and South Portland--to pressure lawmakers to reject LePage’s
proposal.

- John C.L. Morgan

Happy Friday

h/t: Wool, Wood, and Whiskey

- John C.L. Morgan

Westbrook Woman, Local Pools Part of Worldwide Event

PPH:

Pat Gallant-Charette, the Westbrook grandmother who
conquered the English Channel and the Catalina Island crossing off California at
age 60 last year, wants you to swim a few laps with her today. Or, at least, pay
a visit to a community pool for a free health screening or sponsor a swimmer
raising money for local heart programs. It's all part of an international
effort--29 countries are involved – called Swim for Your Heart to raise
awareness of heart disease and its prevention.Fourteen pools in Maine are
participating in the event, held for the second year in a row on Valentine's
Day.

- John C.L. Morgan

Competitor of Westbrook Business Closes

PPH:

Market Fresh's owner, Stephen Goodrich, said the
company's 20 employees were notified last week that Saturday will be their last
day of work. Goodrich said his sales staff has been referring customers to a
competitor, Native Maine Produce and Specialty Foods in Westbrook.

- John C.L. Morgan

Maine DOT Begins Bridge Repairs Early

PPH:

Construction is under way to replace the bridge in
Westbrook that got its 15 minutes of infamy last fall when President Obama cited
its deterioration as an example of the nation's desperate infrastructure needs.
Workers from Reed & Reed, the contractor for the $5 million project, are
erecting a temporary bridge next to the Cumberland Mills Bridge, which is to be
replaced and ready for use by the spring of 2014. Traffic is expected to shift
to the temporary bridge in May, said Ben Condon, project manager for the Maine
Department of Transportation.

- John C.L. Morgan

State Chops Down Elm Trees to Aid Bridge Work

AJ:

[T]he Department of Transportation first had to
make room for relocated power lines and poles. That meant taking down a number
of large trees growing by the side of the road, including some growing on the
property next to The Elms, a bed-and-breakfast inn across the street from the
mill. The inn was first built byS.D. Warren as a retreat for visiting company
executives, and is now privately owned.

- John C.L. Morgan

On Paul LePage's Horatio Alger Years

Author and reporter Colin Woodard has written an article on Paul LePage's upbringing.

And though Woodard is receiving some criticism that he should've included a possible conflict-of-interest disclosure in the piece, he deserves high praise for penning an informative essay in which he synthesizes previously published material with original reporting. The result is a rich portrayal of the Maine executive's formative years.

The second part of the essay, which will be about LePage's climb in the business and political arenas, will be published by the Portland Phoenix on January 20.

- John C.L. Morgan

Westbrook Residents Among Mainers Paying for FEMA's Errors

PPH:

Last year, 370 Maine property owners appealed to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to remove their homes or businesses from flood plain status,
according to the Maine State Planning Office. Most of them had to hire surveyors
at an average cost of $750 to prove they didn't need to pay for costly flood
insurance policies required to obtain a mortgage.

- John C.L. Morgan

In the Blood

For the context of this video, read Bob Keyes's feature on Maine musician/filmmaker Sumner McKane's "In the Blood."

- John C.L. Morgan

Maine Food Coma

Joe Ricchio and friends toured four other Maine locales (Bangor, the Fryeburg Fair, Lewiston/Auburn, and Sanford) and did not die of any heart attacks before posting abbreviated shows online. If you enjoy Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations," you'll probably enjoy this show--including the episode when Ricchio sits down with Bourdain backstage at Merrill Auditorium.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: No Reservations (April 23, 2010)

Dept. of Labor Calculates Living Wages for Mainers

Wicki Biz:

What do you have to make to be able to afford to
live in Maine? If you look at the basic expenses, the whole kit and caboodle,
including food, rent, utilities, phone, health care, transportation, child care,
clothing, personal care, household goods, taxes, etc., what’s the end cost? A
new report out from the Maine Department of Labor tells us that.

- John C.L. Morgan

Who are the Most Influential Political Players in Maine?

Matt Gagnon over at Pine Tree Politics has his list of the Top 25.

- John C.L. Morgan

How Maine Gets Its Drink On

Considering it's nearly closing time on the 78th anniversary of the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment repealing prohibition, what better time to check out the Boston Globe's take on Maine's "new drinking culture":

John Myers, a traditional saloonist and cocktail
historian, tends bar at The Grill Room, a steakhouse with a wood-burning grill
in the center of the Old Port here. Myers, looking like a Wild West gunslinger
with his wool vest and bushy beard, stands in the lamplight - a sommelier of
cocktails ready to shake or stir. I’m sitting on the other side of the bar,
deciding what to order. I know that the bar man specializes in the tried and
true. I ask him what defines a classic cocktail.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Did You Know? (February 20, 2008)

Westbrook Voters Approve Same-Day Registration, Split Ticket on Casinos

According to the PPH, Westbrook voters mirrored statewide voters' preference for reinstating same-day voter registration, with both local and statewide voters approving Question 1 with a 60-40% margin.

Westbrook voters also dovetailed with statewide voters with its votes on a proposed casino in Lewiston (57% of Westbrook voters rejected Question 3, and 63% of statewide voters did so), and local voters reflected countywide results on the bond question involving the renovation of the Cumberland County Civic Center (55% of Westbrook voters approved the $33 million bond for the renovation, compared to 59% of county voters).

Westbrook voters did differ with the rest of the state, however, in its preference for casinos based in Biddeford and Washington County: 51% of Westbrook voters approved Question 2, while only 45% of statewide voters approved the referendum question.

- John C.L. Morgan

Milford & Irene

Westbrook Printing Press Driving Force for Maine Poetry

PPH:

Alice Persons tied a pretty purple bow around the book of poetry and dropped it
in the mail. She assumed the chapbook would end up among a stack of others that
Garrison Keillor receives and never reads. Lo and behold, not only did Keillor
pay attention to the book, he read one of the poems as part of his syndicated
radio and online program, "The Writers Almanac." Ever since, Keillor has
returned again and again to the poems published by Persons and her tiny
Westbrook-based Moon Pie Press. In recent years, he's read 24 poems published by
Moon Pie on his radio show, and included four Moon Pie poems in his third
published anthology, "Good Poems, American Places," which came out last week.

- John C.L. Morgan

Gov. LePage to Host Town Hall Meeting in WPAC

AJ:

He will be at the Performing Arts Center at
Westbrook Middle School on Stroudwater Street from 6-7:30 p.m. Friday for a town
hall-style meeting. The public is invited to attend to ask questions of LePage.

- John C.L. Morgan