Reunion brings pilots together

Published in the Current

CAPE ELIZABETH (Sep 15, 2005): A retired Air Force pilot held a reunion at his Cape Elizabeth home Sunday, for members of his flight school class from 1969.

Fred Robinson and his wife, Janet, hosted the third class reunion, which was attended by men who flew for the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

The group met in April 1968 at Laughlin Air Force Base, just outside Del Rio, Texas. “Pilot training is 53 weeks and in Del Rio there is nothing” to do, said Fred Robinson. “We made our own fun.”

They did so again this weekend, with a tour of the Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse – the east light of Two Lights – and a lobster bake for dinner at the Robinsons' home on the coast.

The longtime friends caught up on the news of kids, grandkids and retirement adventures, and reminisced about old times, too.

“A lot of guys started families while they were there,” Robinson said. Many of the men got married, and 17 children were born – all of them girls, according to one woman who married her husband and had a child there, Janice Danahy, the wife of retired Maj. Gen. John Danahy.

They became friends during the class, and in subsequent survival schools before being sent “in the pipeline” to fly cargo planes, forward air spotters or fighters in Vietnam.

“After the Vietnam War we had quite a few guys that stayed in” on active duty or in the reserves, as did Robinson for 21 years, while also working in the airline industry.

Some members of the group flew in the first Gulf War.

The group began meeting again in 1999, after a chance meeting between Robinson and class member Bobby Fullerton. Robinson was flying for the United shuttle when an American Airlines pilot came aboard and asked if he could ride in Robinson's “jump seat,” a spare seat in the cockpit where airline pilots often fly free of charge, as a professional courtesy.

The American pilot looked at Robinson and said, “I think I know you.” Robinson recognized Fullerton, and the pair began planning to get their pilot class together.

They were able to find many of the class with old addresses, military and commercial pilot connections, and even a federal database: One of the class, Tony Liguori, works for the Federal Aviation Administration, and searched names for the group.

They have met every three years since 1999. Members of the group came from as far as the country of Norway, though most came from across the United States, including Arizona, Minnesota, Florida, Cape Cod, Delaware and a couple from Louisiana who had “just the most beautiful weather” at their home while Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coast.

Cianchette launches bid for Blaine House

Published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND (Sep 15, 2005): Republican Peter Cianchette began his campaign for governor Tuesday, with rallies in Bangor, Lewiston and South Portland.

Cianchette, a South Portland resident who in the past represented the city in the Maine House, lost to Democrat John Baldacci in 2000, and is up against state Sen. Peter Mills, who is also seeking the Republican nod to challenge Baldacci.

Cianchette’s South Portland kickoff was attended by several local Republican leaders, including Rep. Darlene Curley, R-Scarborough, who has decided not to seek the Republican nomination for governor; Cape Elizabeth Town Councilor Paul McKenney, who failed to unseat Sen. Lynn Bromley, D-South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough, in 2004; and Paul Nixon, who did challenged Rep. Larry Bliss, D-South Portland, in 2004 and lost. Nixon also withdrew his name from consideration for the South Portland City Council Monday.

He was introduced by his wife, Carolyn, who works as the executive director for communication and development at Southern Maine Community College.

Peter Cianchette, who was the Maine chairman of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign in 2004 (Maine went for challenger John Kerry), and the Maine national committeeman for the Republican Party, came out firing against Baldacci, saying the governor increased Maine’s tax burden, raised health care costs and failed to lead in a time of great challenges in state government.

Cianchette laid out eight points he wants to work on if elected: improving Maine’s business climate, making government more efficient, limiting state spending, passing on additional state school spending to local taxpayers, rewriting the income and sales tax laws, revitalizing the health insurance market, improving educational accountability, and regionalizing local government.

He said he will spend time focusing on each of those issues, starting with educational accountability for the rest of September, and moving on to the economy for October, and spending a month on each of the other issues as well.

Towns, schools watching fuel prices

Published in the Current

(Sep 15, 2005): Scarborough students and school staff might need to “wear more sweaters” this winter, as the district has frozen all discretionary spending to save money that could be needed to pay higher-than-expected heating oil and diesel prices.

“There are very few accounts that we actually control,” said Superintendent Bill Michaud. He has stopped all spending on textbooks, office supplies and audio-visual materials, while allowing for some exceptions to be made on a case-by-case basis.

He said the district had considered canceling all field trips, because of the cost of diesel fuel for the buses transporting students and teachers to various locations.

“There are some field trips that are closely tied to the curriculum” and many that are outside of school but still in town, such as science trips to Scarborough Marsh and the town’s beaches.

He said the district will be reviewing all field trip requests, and “obviously some of them are going to be eliminated.”

Sports teams will be allowed to use buses only for required meets and contests, he said. There will be no more buses to scrimmages or exhibition games.

“We’ve also considered turning the thermostat down” to save energy, said Michaud. All the school buildings in town except for the primary schools are heated by natural gas, which does not allow the schools to lock in a price. And the district has not been able to lock in a price for what heating oil it does use, estimated to cost $500,000 a year.

Michaud will review the district’s fuel spending in early January to see whether it can afford to end the spending freezes.

Town Manager Ron Owens said if fuel prices stay about the same as they are now, the town and school combined could be more than $100,000 over the budgeted amount for diesel fuel, most of which is used for school buses.

If diesel prices, which are now falling, go back up, the budget hole would be bigger, as much as $700,000, if prices climb $1.20 a gallon above where they were two weeks ago, when the town got its last shipment of diesel.

“We can do some things to try to absorb that,” Owens said, such as reducing engine idling and finding ways to eliminate duplicate vehicle trips.

But if the hole is larger than about $100,000, Owens said he would seek approval from the council to cover the extra costs with money in the town’s reserve account.

Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Alan Hawkins told the School Board Tuesday he is starting to collect information about projected fuel costs, and might appoint a group to discuss what should be done.

Cape Town Manager Mike McGovern has asked all town departments to find additional ways to conserve fuel, in addition to their regular conservation measures, such as using timers on lights and boilers and using energy-efficient windows and light fixtures.

In South Portland, school Business Manager Polly Ward said the city and schools together locked in a heating oil price last spring, so that is not a concern.

She said district employees are concerned about diesel fuel costs and the cost of natural gas, but are not yet restricting field trips.

“Right now we don’t have any reason to believe that we’re not going to be properly budgeted” for fuel expenses, she said.

New Medicare drug benefit: What you need to know

Published in the Current

(Sep 14, 2005): Seniors on Medicare, or those approaching age 65, have a big choice looming regarding Medicare's new prescription-drug coverage program.

While seniors will be given plenty of information, including from government agencies and advertising by large insurance companies, the wealth of information may actually make it harder to decide on the best prescription drug program for you.

Starting Oct. 1, insurance companies will begin a marketing campaign targeting senior citizens, to convince them to buy one or another Medicare-approved prescription drug insurance plan, collectively called Medicare Part D.

Starting on Nov. 15, those on Medicare will need to sign up for a specific drug coverage plan in order to be eligible for help paying the costs of prescription drugs starting on Jan. 1, 2006.

In the lead-up to what promises to be a complex decision-making process, Medicare drug specialist Katlyn Blackstone from the Southern Maine Agency on Aging is holding a series of seminars around Cumberland and York counties to inform seniors about the new prescription drug system.

There are 77,000 Medicare recipients in Cumberland and York counties, and “all of you will have to make some kind of decision regarding Medicare Part D,” even if that choice is not to participate, Blackstone said at a meeting with seniors in South Portland last week.

How it works

The Medicare prescription drug plan is separate from the hospital insurance program, called Part A, and outpatient insurance covering doctor’s office visits, called Part B.

Medicare Part D replaces the Medicare-approved drug discount card program that started in early 2004, meaning that people involved in those programs will have to choose a new Part D plan.

These prescription drug plans are offered by private insurance companies, who will charge a premium – projected to be about $35 a month, at least for the first year.

Benefits, under Part D, start with a $250 deductible, which must be paid by the individual. There is no insurance to help pay for the first $250 of drugs you use each year.

Under all the Part D prescription drug coverage plans, fees are charged at the full rate, not a discounted rate like with the current drug discount cards.

So, for example, if a person is taking a drug, and is in a drug discount plan with a payment of $25 for a drug that costs $100, the person would have to pay the full $100 for two months, and then $50 the third month, before the insurance kicks in.

After the person pays the $250 deductible, the new drug coverage insurance plans, under Medicare Part D, will pay 75 percent of the cost of the drugs.

That means seniors will be required to pay the remaining 25 percent – until the total cost of the drugs reaches $2,250.

Under Part D, therefore, a senior has to pay $500 of their own money, in addition to the $250 deductible, for a total of $750 out-of-pocket.

Beyond that, there is what Blackstone called a “coverage gap” in which “you are responsible for all of your drug costs” until the total cost of your drugs reaches $5,100.

This means the senior would have to spend another $2,850 of their own money – for a total out-of-pocket cost of $3,600.

After that, the drug insurance plan will pick up 95 percent of the cost of all drugs, leaving 5 percent to be paid by the senior.

These out of pocket costs for prescription drugs are an annual expense. And, the $35 premiums must be paid monthly as well.

How to get help

Before the sign-up period begins, seniors can ask for help paying the costs of the premiums and prescription drugs, once they have decided on a prescription drug plan.

Blackstone said everyone should fill out a form from the Social Security Administration to see if they qualify for help, based on their income level and other assets such as bank accounts.

The value of a senior’s home, and any vehicles, are not included in the income calculation.

People with Mainecare and Medicare will have no premium, no deductible, no gap in coverage, and co-payments at or below $5 per prescription, even for brand-name medications – though only if their medications are on the list of specific drugs covered by their plan.

If those people spend more than $3,600 in a year, then even the co-payment is waived.

People who live in nursing homes and on Mainecare will have no co-payments or any out-of-pocket expenses, Blackstone said.

Choosing a plan

There will be as many as 20 prescription drug coverage plans available to choose from in Maine.

All of the Medicare Part D plans must be approved by the Maine Bureau of Insurance. None of the plans offered will provide coverage for purchasing drugs from Canadian pharmacies.

The Medicare information booklet, mailed each October to recipients, will include a listing of all plans available in Maine and phone numbers to call for more information.

But even before that, the insurance companies can advertise their plans, including calling seniors directly.

“They’re not allowed to enroll you over the phone,” Blackstone said, warning seniors not to be talked into signing up too quickly.

She urged seniors to look carefully at all the plans, including asking what medications each plan covers (called its “formulary”) and how much it will cost, including co-payments.

“The companies want your business. Up front they are most likely going to be very generous in their formularies. … Later on that might change. We’re not sure,” Blackstone said.

Some drug coverage plans will require prescriptions be filled by mail, while others will be honored by local pharmacies.

Penalty for delay

Enrollment is not automatic, except for people on Medicaid (or Mainecare) or in Medicare savings plans. But even then, there is a choice to be made.

“If you have Mainecare and Medicare … you will be automatically assigned to a plan by the end of the year if you don’t pick one,” Blackstone said.

People with Veterans Administration prescription coverage, TRICARE or Federal Employee Health Benefits coverage do not need to sign up.

People on retiree prescription plans will get a letter by Nov. 15, telling them whether they need to sign up for Medicare Part D.

A person who decides not to sign up by May 15, 2006, and is not in a comparable plan, will have to pay a penalty if they sign up later.

The penalty is a percentage of the premium, based on how many months after the May 15, 2006, enrollment deadline the person signs up.

For example, if a person signs up a month late, they will have to pay the premium, plus 1 percent of the premium, each month. If a person signs up a year late, the surcharge would be 12 percent of the premium.

For more information about the new Medicare Part D drug coverage plans, call Southern Maine Agency on Aging at 396-6500 or 1-800-427-7411.

Locals divided on Patriot Act

Published in the Current

SCARBOROUGH (Sep 8, 2005): Local residents are torn about the expansion of the USA PATRIOT Act, with some worried about government invasion of privacy, while others want the act expanded to provide more security against terrorism.

At a forum on the issue last week, Pauline Levin of Scarborough noted media reports “that abuses have occurred” under the provisions of the law, enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, to help federal agents fight terrorism.

But Arline Neumann, also of Scarborough, said she wants police powers extended. “I feel the Patriot Act protects me to stay alive,” she said at the forum, held at the Scarborough Public Library.

The law’s official name is an acronym standing for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism,” but it is often referred to simply as the “Patriot Act.”

The lead federal prosecutor in Maine, Paula Silsby, defended the law as something that provides police and investigators with "tools (that) facilitate the prosecutors' job" and are "necessary" to protect the public.

Several provisions are up for renewal by Congress this fall, which has led to a national debate on how much privacy people are willing to give up in exchange for a measure of security.

One controversial provision up for reconsideration allows federal agents to demand copies of records of books people have borrowed from libraries or purchased at bookstores, and, under some circumstances, to force library or store officials to remain silent about the demand forever.

Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said her group agrees government should have tools to protect the public. “Our concern is the expansion” of investigative powers and restrictions on public knowledge or judicial oversight of the process, she said.

That “increases our necessity to trust government officials,” which is not always a good idea in a democracy, she said.

Librarians have also been concerned, with Wendy Miller of the Maine Library Association noting that America has a strong tradition of intellectual freedom.

In response to a question from Patricia Doyle, a resident of Westchester County, N.Y., who was visiting Levin, Miller said she would not report to police a person who asked her for a book on how to make bombs.

Shortly after 9/11, a man asked Miller for help finding books on Iraq and Pakistan, she said. She felt nervous initially, but then dismissed it as her own reaction because of the timing of the request. He wasn’t doing anything illegal, she said. “He’s just looking for information.”

The very fact that a man’s search for books on a particular topic worried Anne Altern, a South Portland resident born in Norway.

“In this country, you can buy a gun and no record is kept. … You can go to a library and check out a book and the record is always there,” she said.

Scarborough resident Jack Kelley said the danger is real, despite a “philosophy of privacy” that pervades American culture.

Drawing a distinction between day-to-day crimes and terrorism, Kelley said “failure to prevent a crime can result in somebody’s death” but failure to prevent an act of terrorism could result in destruction of a city.

Neumann said she didn’t mind if the government wanted to look at her book-borrowing records. “Before 9/11 I would have cared,” but now she does not, she said.

Most people in the room, whether they supported or opposed parts of the Patriot Act, said they believed there are terrorists “out there” who want to harm American citizens, and are using the Internet – freely and anonymously available in many libraries – as one tool in their efforts.

Bellows said her group’s concerns include ensuring the government doesn’t “waste taxpayer dollars” investigating peaceful groups. She noted that the FBI recently released 1,000 pages documenting investigation and surveillance of the American Civil Liberties Union, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU.

Silsby said the Patriot Act strikes a “balance” between freedom and safety. “I think we all agree that we have to remain safe in order to be free,” she said.

Neumann noted that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed “Atta looked like an average American businessman carrying a briefcase.” A search of his clothes or his luggage would have turned up nothing, she said. “He used the plane as his weapon.”

4 from S.P. ready to go

Published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND (Sep 8, 2005): Four firefighter-paramedics with the South Portland Fire Department are ready to head to the Gulf Coast as part of a 20-member team from Maine.

"We're just waiting for a phone call," said Fire Chief Kevin Guimond. "I wish we could offer more people, but we've still got to cover the city."

Guimond said he and others in the department have also been working the last two days to set up a shelter in Maine for evacuees, but it now looks like they will not get this far, he said.

Lynette Miller of the Maine Emergency Management Agency said South Portland is one place a statewide task force is considering as a possible site for meeting up with evacuees to find out what they need and sending them elsewhere in the state.

She said federal agencies have halted "mass relocations" out of the disaster-affected area, citing evacuees' unwillingness to go so far from home.

Editorial: Not so far

Published in the Current

(Sep 8, 2005): While the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina is 1,600 miles away, people in our towns – even just down the street – are feeling its effects and getting involved.

Jack Malcolm of Cape Elizabeth and Ellen Thornton of Scarborough are back in their respective homes, relieved survivors of the storm. Aid donations are pouring into anywhere that is set up to collect them, whether a container truck at the Maine Mall or a firefighter's rubber boot at the Cape Elizabeth transfer station.

And though we felt only rain from Katrina, another “disaster” made landfall here: The federal response was not well coordinated. Cape’s Water Extrication Team was on standby, only to be told to stay put. The federal agency in charge said they weren’t needed.

Local firefighters and others signed up to help, too, but the feds are now saying they have everyone they need in place or on the way.

It’s hard to believe that, given the pictures and reports coming out of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, where thousands of people are still trapped in their homes or places of work by floodwaters contaminated with hazardous chemicals and sewage.

Only a couple days ago looting and random shootings were reportedly commonplace in the ruins of New Orleans, and hundreds – if not thousands – who had survived the hurricane were in danger of dying before help arrived. It certainly seemed, from this far away, as if more rescuers in boats, like the WETeam, and more public-safety workers, like the firefighters, could have helped.

We know now that if the feds had acted faster in the immediate aftermath of the storm, more people might have been saved, or at least rescued earlier.

Only time will tell whether the feds were right to delay Maine’s offers of aid, but that’s not enough for people in our community, who want to help.

Though we fear they may not be, we hope the feds are making the right decisions now, after failing so miserably just days ago. And we can take heart, knowing that if more help is needed – whether tomorrow, next month or next year – we have people in our communities who are standing up to say “I will.”

Thanks to them. We should all be proud of their willingness to serve, and should join them in whatever way we can, whether by donating food, money or time.

Four years already

This issue begins our fifth year here at the Current, and we owe it all to two groups of people: our readers and our advertisers. Without you, we would not have survived, nor would we be continuing to thrive and grow, still working each week to become the best community newspaper we can be.

In some ways, to some of us, it seems like yesterday a small group of us were in a small upstairs office putting together the first issue of the more than 200 we have published since.

And in other ways, we have grown to become a stronger weekly paper than we had hoped, always with the news from Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, but expanding our range to include developments at the Statehouse, and deepening our coverage in our towns to explore specific areas such as business, religion and, as always, schools, police and town government.

We have also introduced our readers to interesting and enlightening people who live nearby, and have helped make and strengthen connections within our communities.

We have illuminated social issues, trends and controversies, and have received countless positive comments. But we are not resting on our achievements. Rather, we push forward each week, striving to be even better, and in that effort, we need your assistance.

Your story ideas, comments and friendly faces are all important to us. Please contact Jeff Inglis, editor, at 883-3533, or by e-mail at currjeff@maine.rr.com, at any time with anything you would like to say. We welcome letters to the editor, guest columns, news tips, neighborhood updates and anything else you would like to send our way.

Thanks again for reading and participating in this, your community’s newspaper.

Jeff Inglis, editor

Students inspire teacher to write

Published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND (Sep 1, 2005): Mike Bogart never really thought of himself as an author, but his first book is due out shortly and he has two more in the works.

Bogart, a South Portland resident who works at Scarborough Middle School, was inspired by his students to write the book he has been working on for a couple years.

He teaches 19 STRIVE students, kids with academic or emotional challenges, and was “looking for something that would be interesting to our kind of students,” namely a “high-interest, low-reading-level” book for the kids who are struggling with reading.

“They’re all bright,” Bogart said. He found that if the students could read about a subject that interested them, they would read a lot. If they couldn’t find anything they liked, they would be less likely to read.

The demand is strong. “There’s not a lot of stuff out there,” said Bogart’s co-teacher Phil DelVecchio of Westbrook.

“A lot of the stuff that’s easy reading is more fantasy or science fiction,” and some kids just don’t like it, DelVecchio said. The teachers have also been working to get the students writing more, about “what they have in their head” as a way to keep up their interest, he said.

Bogart, a former Massachusetts firefighter who has coached Little League and Babe Ruth baseball for the last 12 years, thought he could use some of his life experience to get the kids reading.

So “Meet the Henderson Twins in Matt and Mike Henderson Play Hardball” was born. “Part of this is me trying to role-model” the writing he encourages in his students, as well.

Bogart, one of nine children, had two younger brothers who were twins, based a lot of the material on things he knows well.

The book follows the adventures of twin 12-year-old boys growing up in Boston. They love baseball, and play in their local Little League. They get to visit Fenway Park and meet their baseball hero, as well as see Boston firefighters in action and handle other challenges of daily life.

The boys live with their little sister, their grandmother and their widowed father. Their mother died when a drunk driver hit her car, and the book addresses the effect of that on the boys.

He included that theme as a warning to the kids, many of whom are on prescription medications in middle school but go off them in high school, choosing instead to “self-medicate.”

“I’m just finding that a lot of these kids are getting into alcohol and drugs,” said Bogart, who this week began his sixth year in the Scarborough schools. He wanted to “plant a seed” of warning in the kids while they are still young – 11, 12 and 13 years old – that drugs and alcohol can be very dangerous.

“When I wrote it, I read it with my STRIVE students,” who told him what they thought of it, said Bogart. One piece of advice they gave him was to make the language easier for them to understand. In some places, he had to choose different words or other ways to say something to help the kids move through the story.

The project took a big leap forward when Bogart’s friend and colleague Sue Lahaie, a longtime Scarborough teacher who died this summer, read it to a group of her students. Lahaie’s group wrote Bogart letters about the book and also held an “author’s tea” to discuss the book.

“She and the students suggested that I get it published,” said Bogart, who also has drafts of books with the Henderson twins playing football and hockey.

The baseball book will be out later this month. Bogart hopes to use the royalties from the book to purchase more books appropriate for his students, and will use his own work “if I come across a group that I think would enjoy it.”

People can buy the book at Nonesuch Books and Borders in South Portland, and get more information at www.freewebs.com/hendersontwins. The book is also available online through www.PublishAmerica.com.

Editorial: School’s open

Published in the Current

(Sep 1, 2005): Scarborough schools started earlier this week, Cape schools started today, and South Portland schools start Tuesday, so be careful on the roads: Keep your eyes peeled for kids walking and biking to and from school in the morning and in the afternoon.

We wish all the students, parents, teachers, staff and administrators well as a new year begins.

Here at the Current, we have started off the school year with our Page 1 package on the first days of school that continues inside with coverage of the Maine Educational Assessment test results.

We share our readers’ interest in what is going on inside the walls of our communities’ schools all day long, in how they prepare students for the world beyond, and in the forces outside those walls that shape teaching and learning. We hope you will help us with our reporting efforts by sharing your thoughts, questions and story ideas.

Safety is also a concern, and we are glad school officials in Scarborough and Cape have found ways to keep students safe while also allowing two troubled teens facing criminal charges back into class.

School is not just a place to learn academic skills; it is a venue for learning social and interpersonal skills as well.

Incorporating those two students – and all students with troubles and challenges who can be included safely – into classes and the society of school can only help them grow as individuals and fulfill their potential of contributing to the wider society in productive ways.

Still time to file

Elections are looming, and in all three of our communities some races are shaping up to be quite competitive, while other seats have attracted little or no interest.

We urge citizens to participate in local government, by seeking elective office. Democracy does not work without the freedom to make a choice on the second Tuesday in November.

It takes courage to run and energy to serve, but the level of non-governmental civic involvement in Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and South Portland is so high that it is surprising there are not more people who step forward, offering to participate.

Deadlines are approaching – Scarborough’s is Wednesday, Sept. 7; Cape’s is Friday, Sept. 9; and South Portland’s is Monday, Sept. 12. But there is still time to take out nominating papers, collect a few dozen signatures from friends, neighbors and colleagues, and return them to the clerk’s office.

Jeff Inglis, editor

Young poet’s book to benefit others

Published in the Current

SCARBOROUGH (Sep 1, 2005): Scarborough poet Nathan Laxague is just starting his junior year at Cheverus, but has already begun selling a book of his poetry for the benefit of several non-profit agencies.

Laxague, now 16, was inspired in seventh grade to write poetry to bring laughter to a friend of his who had cancer. During the school year, he wrote several poems for class assignments, and his teacher told him he should try to get them published.

That summer, he wrote several and has spent the years since trying to get the book published. It came out recently, as “Preposterous Poetry to Tickle Your Funny Bone,” with cover and inside art also by Laxague.

“It’s kind of silly stuff to cheer people up,” Laxague said. “It all rhymes because I’ve always had this thing against non-rhyming poetry.”

What began as an effort to help a friend has now become a larger cause. Seventy-five percent of the proceeds will be split among several non-profits, some local and others nationwide.

The Cancer Community Center in South Portland, which helps cancer patients and their families, will get 20 percent of the profits, as will the Tomorrow’s Children’s Fund in New Jersey, which also helps children with cancer and blood disorders.

Ten percent will go to saving the rain forest and endangered animals, and 10 percent will go to the Environmental Health Management Institute to buy educational materials for schools around the country.

The remaining 15 percent will go to a group Laxague is just starting up, called Kids Against Toxins, dedicated to advocating for a cleaner environment.

“People need to realize the toxins in the environment and the effects they have on people’s lives” and health, Laxague said.

The group has several ambitious goals: to create a fund to help people who need medical care but can’t get support from their insurance companies, to encourage hazardous-waste collection days in towns, to expand recycling and environmental programs in schools, and to encourage alternative-health practitioners to present at cancer support centers.

“We’re just getting it started,” Laxague said.

The book is on sale at Borders Books and Music in South Portland, Books Etc. and Emerson Booksellers in Portland. It's also on sale at Lonfellow Books in Portland, where Laxague will hold a book-signing on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 6 p.m.

The Kids Against Toxins group is also holding an event to raise money on Monday, Oct. 3, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the O’Naturals restaurant on Exchange Street in Portland, at which kids can sign up, free of charge, to be members of the group.

It is also seeking donations for an art auction at Local 188 in Portland in April, to benefit the Cancer Community Center and children with cancer at Maine Medical Center.

For more information, contact Laxague at KidsAgainstToxins@hotmail.com.

Former deputy chief destroys evidence

Published in the Current

CAPE ELIZABETH (Sep 1, 2005): A former Cape Elizabeth deputy fire chief who works for the Scarborough Fire Department has pleaded guilty to destroying a computer hard drive before police could examine it as part of an investigation.

Mark Stults, 41, of Woodland Road pled guilty last month to a misdemeanor charge of falsifying physical evidence in December 2004, according to documents in Cumberland County Superior Court.

In 2004, he was deputy chief of the Cape Elizabeth Fire Department, a post he resigned earlier a couple months ago, according to Cape Elizabeth Fire Chief Phil McGouldrick. Stults has not been on any fire calls with the department in recent months, McGouldrick said.

Stults works as a paramedic with the Scarborough Fire Department. Scarborough Fire Chief Mike Thurlow said he did not know about the court case and called Stults “a model employee.”

The charge accused Stults of knowing an official investigation was pending or ongoing and altering, destroying, concealing or removing items relevant to the investigation, the subject of which is not disclosed in court records.

Assistant Cumberland County District Attorney Robert "Bud" Ellis said investigators were following up on a tip when they attempted to search Stults's computer.

“Before an investigation could be done … the hard drive on the computer had been removed and disposed of,” Ellis said.

Stults declined to comment Tuesday, saying it was “a family matter.”

His sentencing has been put off for a year, according to court records.

Cape Elizabeth police Capt. Brent Sinclair said the department had handled the investigation, but would not elaborate, saying only that “the case has been adjudicated.”

Sinclair said Stults has not been charged with any other crimes, and said the Cape police investigation is over.

Editorial: Teaching what they should

Published in the Current

SCARBOROUGH (Aug 25, 2005): The Scarborough Board of Education has made a good decision regarding its sex education curriculum, and we hope parents will be happy with it.

First, the schools will give out more information to parents and will again hold parental information sessions, canceled in the past because of low turnout.

And while some parents are concerned about demonstrations of condom use to eighth-graders, those families will be able to opt out of the class. The schools are being extra careful by making those class sessions “opt-in:” Parents will have to sign a form saying they know condom use will be discussed and demonstrated during the class, and saying they want their kids to learn that material.

The parents who have expressed concerns about the schools’ curriculum are right to want the teachers to focus on abstinence, encouraging students not to have sex until they are adults. And the teachers do just that.

But they do more – and the state guidelines are right to require it – teaching children how to stay safe if they decide to go against the advice of teachers, parents, other adults and this newspaper, and have sex.

The best advice we can give to kids is this: Wait to have sex. In addition to very real concerns about serious diseases or an unexpected baby, having sex at a young age can be emotionally traumatic, and it's hard for anybody to prepare a teenager for that.

We also applaud the schools’ efforts to teach students about the true challenges of parenthood, including through a program using computerized dolls to simulate the needs of an infant.

But kids don’t need to be taught about the possibilities of sex. As parents noted to the Board of Education last week, sex is all around us, in the movies, on TV, in posters and online. Some children – in any town – will always choose to ignore the advice of caring adults and take risks.

We teach young children to wear bicycle helmets in addition to the basic lesson of riding on the right side of the road. We do that not because we want them to ride unsafely, but because they deserve to know how to minimize the risks they take.

That is why the state Department of Education has ruled that an abstinence-only program developed by Heritage of Maine and supported by several Scarborough parents is not enough to meet the state’s educational standards. Kids need more information.

They need to know that one of the best ways to stay safe during sex is to use a condom. Condoms are not completely effective, it is true, but according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “except for abstinence, latex condoms are the most effective method for reducing the risk of infection” by a range of sexually transmitted diseases.

If a young person is going to give up the 100 percent effective option (abstinence), we should want them to be prepared with the next most effective way to minimize the risks they are about to take.

Schools recognize the need for good information – for frank discussions about sex, for repeated encouragement to abstain from sex, and for lessons on staying safe if kids take risks – and have met that need with classes like those taught in Scarborough.

With the opt-in classes, they have also respected parents’ rights to influence how, when and what their children learn about sex. It is important to note, though, that children here in Scarborough – and in Cape Elizabeth, South Portland and all across Maine – are talking about sex and thinking about sex to a degree their parents were not at the same age. And some of them are trying it.

Jeff Inglis, editor

Changing Cape begins to plan for future

Published in the Current

CAPE ELIZABETH (Aug 25, 2005): More than one-third of the homes in Cape Elizabeth are occupied by a single person.

That is just one aspect of a 30-year trend in Cape Elizabeth that has more homes being built even as the number of people living in town remains about the same.

“We’ve grown in housing units but not in population,” Town Manager Mike McGovern told the Comprehensive Plan Committee last week, as part of a discussion of the history of town efforts to plan for the future.

In 1972, when the town took its first shot at a comprehensive plan, the population was about 7,000. The 1972 plan was rejected by the Planning Board then, but remains as a reference for town leaders, McGovern said. The Comprehensive Plan Committee is just beginning its work updating the town's plan for the future, last updated in 1994.

Since 1972, more than 1,000 homes have been built in town, bringing the total of single-family houses to over 3,300 in 2000 Census figures. That’s nearly half as many as existed in 1972. But the number of people climbed more slowly, reaching just over 9,000 in the 2000 Census, well below the 1972 projection that there would be 15,000 Cape residents, McGovern said.

“The population in the 1970s did not increase despite 320 new housing units,” he said. The main reason for that is “there’s far fewer people per household.”

McGovern noted also that the town more than doubled its land holdings between 1972 and 2005, and that the number of farms increased from nine to 10, though “they’re different types of farms.”

He said his numbers showed that “as much as things don’t seem to change much in Cape Elizabeth, there is in fact a lot of change that is going on.”

Recreational life in town has definitely changed. “In 1972 there was absolutely no Community Services program,” McGovern said, and “Fort Williams was just a bunch of buildings. … It had not yet been designated a park.”

He urged the committee to “challenge every assumption” in the present comprehensive plan, created in 1994 and under review this year by a committee of citizens and elected officials.

He asked whether the vacant lot next to the Inn by the Sea should remain zoned for business, as it now is, and also suggested the group look at housing needs, saying “affordable housing is disappearing” from the town.

“The community needs more than just single-family homes,” McGovern said.

He also suggested the committee review the desire, stated in several town planning documents, that the “rural character” of Cape Elizabeth be preserved. He noted that since that phrase first appeared, 1,000 homes have been built.

“Maybe it’s time to segment” the town, focusing rural-protection efforts in some areas while not in others, he said.

He asked them to consider what changes might mean for residents’ property rights, particularly on the Sprague estate, a vast parcel of land in the southwestern part of town that is privately owned and governed by a town-approved master plan for future development and conservation.

Survey in the works

A survey of town residents is in the planning stages, with Critical Insights, a Portland firm owned by Cape resident MaryEllen FitzGerald, slated to conduct a phone survey of a random sample of residents, pending approval of sufficient funding, according to Town Planner Maureen O’Meara. The survey will cost just shy of $15,000.

The last comprehensive plan is based on a town-wide written survey mailed to all residents, of whom just over 100 chose to respond.

The Critical Insights survey will randomly select 400 residents, a sample that because of its randomness and its size will be large enough to make the results statistically representative of the entire town population, FitzGerald told the committee last week.

Editorial: No laughing matter

Published in the Current

(Aug 18, 2005): There is not a huge amount of difference between “Giggles and Grins” and “Grins and Giggles,” but what difference there is should provide room for two companies to keep their names.

Scarborough businesswoman Kristi Stanley, who owns Giggles and Grins, named after some of her young son’s personality traits, says one name is the reverse of the other and shouldn’t cause a problem.

But, as we see on Page 1, the Gerber baby food company seems to think the two are so confusingly similar that it is demanding Stanley change her business’s name.

There are laws and court rulings about this type of dispute, and lawyers are already involved. But common sense and an innate sense of right and wrong should also be in play: Just because someone is bigger than you doesn’t mean they should get their way.

And in this case, the companies should agree to keep their names. They sell items and product lines that are different enough that customers should be able to keep them straight: If you went to buy a blanket (from Giggles and Grins) and instead selected a shampoo (from Grins and Giggles), you’d figure out your mistake long before getting to the cash register.

Perhaps as a safeguard against future disputes like this, the companies could agree that if either is going to sell products similar to the other’s, it must be done under a different product name. So if Stanley decides to make homemade baby soaps, she would have to find a different name for that group of items.

The Internet is the one place where customers could be easily confused, and might unintentionally visit one company’s site when looking for the other.

Because of the mechanics of Internet searches, someone looking for the words “giggles” and “grins” would find both companies’ sites – as well as countless other sites completely unrelated to any products for babies and young children.

So it seems reasonable that to dispel potential customer confusion, at the top of each company’s Web site should be a line saying it is not the other company’s site, and providing a link to the other site.

That sort of solution is quite common in situations where organizations and companies have similar names and want to mutually avoid confusion, and that’s really where the companies’ negotiations should focus.

New inside

I want to call your attention to two items in this week’s issue that are of particular note: the Religion page, on Page 6, and the local school bus schedules, on Pages 20 and 21.

Both are part of our continuing efforts to be the best newspaper serving this territory, and to better serve you, our readers.

This issue marks the second appearance of the Religion page, which will appear every other week as a venue for news, views and information about our local churches and religious groups. Please send contributions, feedback, story ideas and other comments to me by e-mail at jinglis@keepmecurrent.com, or call me at 883-3533.

This issue also includes the school bus schedules for Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth for the upcoming year. (South Portland’s were not available before press time, but will be posted on our Web site, www.KeepMEcurrent.com, as soon as we get them from the school department.) Scarborough’s, in particular, may cause some concern, because of a new district policy consolidating bus stops. Please let us know what you think of the new routes, again by e-mailing me at jinglis@keepmecurrent.com or by calling 883-3533.

As always, we welcome your comments, feedback and ideas on all aspects of the paper. If you would prefer to write or fax, those addresses are just below this column, on the same page.

Thanks so much for reading the Current! We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Jeff Inglis, editor

Editorial: Show up to speak

Published in the Current

SCARBOROUGH (Aug 11, 2005): Next week, on Thursday, Aug. 18, parents will have an opportunity to speak to the Scarborough Board of Education about their views on sex education in the schools.

Every parent of a child in Scarborough schools should attend the meeting, at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall, no matter their views on sex education.

Many parents are pleased with the curriculum, but others are not. Some object to lessons about condoms as a means of protection against sexually transmitted diseases, saying teaching about condoms is tantamount to approving of sexual activity for students. Other parents are concerned that their children might not learn about an effective way to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy at an early enough age that the lessons will stick and be heeded.

We have had columns and letters to the editor on this subject, and postings on our Web site at www.KeepMEcurrent.com, and we invite more of each. Please write to let us know what you think.

Children in our society are exposed to sexual material almost constantly, in the movies, on television, online and elsewhere. We must find ways to help children keep themselves safe, both from dangerous influences and from ignorance of the dangers.

No matter how caring or thoughtful a parent is, children have to do a lot of growing up all on their own, out among their peers, where parents’ watchful eyes cannot go. What we teach them will affect their decisions in those situations.

Parents with ideas, concerns and wishes for all aspects of sex education should make their voices heard. Write to us, and then go speak to the school board.

Making bus sense

Scarborough school officials should be commended for reacting swiftly to complaints from daycare owner Heidi McDonald, who was upset that a new policy reducing the number of school bus stops in town would require some two dozen of her charges to wait just off Route 1, rather than in her building, as has been the case so far.

McDonald’s immediate objections have been taken care of, at least pending further study by a school department committee: On Wednesday, McDonald met with Superintendent Bill Michaud and Transportation Director Scott Macomber, who told her the schools will keep the buses running to her driveway – though not her door – until the committee decides on a permanent solution.

Also, for this year, the schools will continue to transport students between Heidi’s House and all three of the town’s elementary schools, rather than just Eight Corners School, which serves the business’s region of town.

McDonald says she plans to fight the changes, to make permanent the special provisions the schools made this year, mainly because of the short notice to McDonald and to parents.

The schools should carefully consider the effects of this new policy on businesses and parents, as well as children. Parents painstakingly choose daycares for a wide range of reasons, but if the best daycare for a child is across town, that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker.

The idea of shortening bus trips by consolidating stops is a good one. But it would seem that the daycare centers have already created consolidated stops, by bringing together numerous children from separate homes to one location for pickup and drop-off.

The schools should be able to provide at least the larger daycare centers in town with bus service to and from all three elementary schools. Perhaps there should be a minimum number of students required before a bus route will include an out-of-region daycare, to avoid driving a town-owned bus all over town for a single student.

But there should be a way to meet the daycares’ needs while still achieving the school department’s goals. Bus service to daycares is, after all, a service to parents – just like bus service to homes.

Jeff Inglis, editor

Cape class of 1975 gets together

Published in the Current

CAPE ELIZABETH (Aug 11, 2005): About 60 members of the Cape Elizabeth High School class of 1975, and about 25 spouses, partners and significant others, gathered Saturday at the Purpoodock Club to celebrate the class’s 30th reunion.

Many of the attendees had not been to a class reunion before, according to organizer Keith Citrine. About half of the roughly 150-member class live in Maine, with 10 percent in Cape Elizabeth and about a third in Greater Portland, Citrine said. Other attendees came from as far away as California and Oregon.

The reunion was so successful that the class, which has previously had reunions only every 10 years, is planning to have another in five years.

“As we get older, more and more people are returning to Maine,” Citrine said.

Also improving turnout was the advent of e-mail. The correspondence for the last reunion was all by regular post, while nearly everything this time was by e-mail. “It really changed the way we’re able to communicate with classmates,” Citrine said.

The event was organized primarily by class members Lisa Norton of Scarborough, and Jon Chapman, Andy Strout and Citrine, all Cape residents.

In addition to Saturday night’s event, class members and their families gathered Sunday at a private beach owned by Strout’s family for a cookout and shore activities, including kayaking.

Boardman heads back to Afghanistan

Published in the Current

SCARBOROUGH (Aug 11, 2005): Army Capt. Jeremy Boardman of Scarborough was home recently on a two-week leave from service in Afghanistan.

Boardman, a West Point graduate who has been stationed in Germany for five years, was last home at Christmas time. He was stationed in Iraq for a year from 2003 to early 2004.

A member of the 510th Personnel Services Battalion in the Adjutant General Corps, Boardman handles mail delivery, and processes paperwork for promotions, deployments, training and casualties.

He has been stationed in Afghanistan since March, mostly in Bagram, the main U.S. base, but more recently in Kandahar, in the southern area of the country. He is the only officer in his unit to be stationed in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

When he returns, he will serve there for eight more months before coming home to Germany, and then, he hopes, the United States.

Boardman scheduled his leave time in part to take a graduate-school admission test, part of his application process for the West Point teacher’s program. He hopes to be accepted to teach economics. If he is accepted to the program, the Army will decide what they want him to teach, and will pay to send him to graduate school for two years.

Then he will teach at West Point for three years, and will have to serve in the Army elsewhere in the world for another three years.

In Kandahar, “it’s a lot like Iraq,” Boardman said: hot and dry. “Get rid of the heat and the dust, it’s not that bad.”

But life is better there than in Bagram, which is at about 9,000 feet of altitude, which takes its toll on the body.

In Bagram, he was assigned a wooden hut to live in, but promptly improved it, with help from fellow soldiers.

“It felt like you were living in a toolshed,” he said. He called a sergeant friend from Iraq who is now building a house in Germany. The sergeant sent Boardman extra building materials, including floor tiles and wallpaper. Boardman also managed to score a real bed, rather than the folding cot the Army gave him.

“It’s 10 times better than it was,” he said.

In Kandahar he lives in modular housing, which is sturdier and more comfortable, he said.

“Our office is in what they call the ‘Taliban last stand building,’” where a contingent of Taliban fighters holed up until an American bomb blew a massive hole in the roof. Much of the building has been repaired for Army use, but the hole remains. A flagpole with a U.S. flag flying now sticks up through the hole.

Boardman signed up to go to Afghanistan, anticipating it would help him prepare for graduate school.

In Afghanistan, “your downtime isn’t really downtime” like it is in Germany, where his girlfriend is a short distance away and there are plenty of things to do.

Instead, “it’s kind of like ‘Groundhog Day,’” a Bill Murray movie in which a man wakes up every morning to find it is the same day over and over again, until he learns the lesson: Make the most of what you’re given.

While in Afghanistan, Boardman has been able to study and prepare for the West Point program and the Captain’s Career Course he needs to qualify for a future promotion.

He has also been working hard, helping handle 500,000 pounds of mail every month, as a primary task. “That’s only going to increase” as the holidays approach, Boardman said.

His unit takes “mobile post offices” to remote outposts in huge twin-rotor Chinook helicopters, as well as in trucks to nearby bazaars, where soldiers can buy local goods and ship them home right away.

Signs, library donations draw council concern

Published in the Current

CAPE ELIZABETH (Aug 11, 2005): Members of the Cape Elizabeth Town Council have expressed reservations about a proposed agreement with a new charity that supports the Thomas Memorial Library, and about the town’s sign ordinance.

At Monday’s meeting, the council scheduled for Monday, Sept. 12, at 7:30 p.m. a public hearing for changes to the sign ordinance, despite concerns about the rules from Councilors Michael Mowles and Carol Fritz.

Mowles, who supported the move for a public hearing, called the sign ordinance “rather restrictive." He said it "impinges on our right to free speech in certain areas.”

Fritz wanted the sign ordinance to be considered by the Planning Board to “have signs be in keeping with the town character.”

Councilor Jack Roberts said the revisions mostly clarified the language to specify the maximum area of each side of a sign, in the wake of last year’s election, when unclear language was exploited by some candidates to make campaign signs larger than town officials wanted.

Another provision removed a limit on the total area of signs on town-owned property, to allow directional and informational signs at the transfer station and Fort Williams Park, according to Town Manager Mike McGovern.

Signs on those properties violate the existing ordinance, which limits signs on town-owned property to a total combined area of 100 square feet. Those large spaces, with multiple possible destinations, need more signs to help people get around, McGovern said.

McGovern will meet with both Fritz and Mowles, and said “there are constitutional questions with any sign ordinance … It wouldn’t hurt to have a review in that context.”

Councilors also were concerned about a proposed agreement with a new charity, the Thomas Memorial Library Foundation, in the wake of a disagreement between councilors and leaders of another charity supporting a major town operation, the Fort Williams Charitable Foundation.

McGovern said the agreement needed to be in place so town and library foundation leaders can properly allocate donations made by community members. The town owns the library building and employs its staff. The foundation would raise money to donate to the town from time to time, in support of library activities. The town also accepts donations toward library operations costs from other private citizens and organizations.

Councilor Mary Ann Lynch said she had “some concerns, which I think have increased over the past few weeks,” and worried about some printed materials directing members of the Friends of Thomas Memorial Library to donate to the foundation rather than to the town.

Lynch, who said she helped revitalize the Friends group about 20 years ago, asked for the council to discuss the matter more fully at a workshop with the foundation directors before approving the arrangement.

Several councilors expressed concern about the possibility of a conflict between the town and the foundation, if each were pushing the library in a different direction. That is similar to the recent push by the Fort Williams Charitable Foundation to get the town to grant a permanent easement over the fort property to a local land trust, a move resisted by the town, which says the park is fully protected under existing agreements.

Library Director Jay Scherma said he had no problem with the foundation and the town working together.

“I personally don’t perceive a conflict. It’s clear to me that I am an employee of the town. … I answer to the town manager,” he said. “Foundations have become part and parcel of what is almost expected or de rigeur in the library community.”

He said the Friends group had never formally filed for tax-exempt status, and the foundation was taking over. “The Friends are being subsumed under the foundation,” he said.

McGovern said he would sign the agreement as an administrative action so there is a temporary agreement in place until the council can act on the matter.

Dogs to be election issue

Published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND (Aug 11, 2005): Dogs are shaping up to be an election issue in South Portland, with a proponent of dogs on Willard Beach planning to run against a dog-control advocate for the City Council District 1 seat.

David Bourke, who has asked the police department to enforce literally the city ordinance's requirement that dogs not on leashes be "at heel," has taken out nominating papers for the seat being vacated by David Jacobs.

Also taking out papers was Claude Morgan, president of the South Portland Dog Owners Group, who has worked to revise city laws to allow dogs in public spaces.

Paul Nixon, who failed to defeat incumbent Larry Bliss for a Statehouse seat last year, has also taken out papers for the seat. He is in his second term on the city's Planning Board.

For District 2, R. Anton Hoecker has taken out papers, as has incumbent Thomas Maietta.

For District 5, Brian Dearborn, a member of the Community Development Advisory Committee, has taken out papers to run against incumbent James Hughes, who has also taken out papers to run for what would be his second term.

For School Board, incumbent Chairman Mark Reuscher has taken out papers to run again, and William Harris, a member of the Conservation Commission, has as well. Two seats are vacant. Incumbent Lori Bowring Michaud had not taken out papers as of Wednesday.

For the Portland Water District seat representing South Portland and Cape Elizabeth, incumbent John Brady has taken out nominating papers.

Nominating papers are now available from the city clerk's office. Completed forms can be filed no sooner than Aug. 29 but no later than Sept. 12, for the Nov. 8 election.

Clarification Aug. 16:
The position held by David Bourke about dogs' access to public spaces was improperly characterized in last week's issue, in a Page 5 article about candidates for City Council. On Aug. 8, at the City Council workshop, Bourke reversed his earlier position. He now supports the proposal of a city task force studying the issue, which would change the dogs ordinance and then provide enforcement of the changed law.

Wheelchair athletes roll to the finish

Published in the Current

(Aug 11, 2005): The first racer across the finish line at Fort Williams Park Saturday was a wheelchair athlete, Tony Nogueira, who won the race for the sixth time, in 0:25:35, a 4:07 mile pace.

The wheelchairs reach speeds of about 30 mph, according to Peter Hawkins, who finished seventh in the division, in 0:31:57.

Hawkins and six others, including Nogueira, second-place Kamel Ayari (0:26:31) and Erik Corbett (fifth, in 0:29:07), spent the night before the race and the night after at a Cape Elizabeth assisted-living home, which opened its spare rooms at no charge to the racers, who needed wheelchair-accessible bathrooms and eating facilities.

Those are hard to find in private homes in Cape Elizabeth, where many out-of-town runners stay, but Village Crossings at Cape Elizabeth on Scott Dyer Road had just renovated several rooms, which were slated to be vacant while work finished up.

David Rogers, assistant executive director at Village Crossings, said the building had the space and it seemed to fit a need. Some years as many as 12 wheelchair racers have competed, according to Russ Connors, a Cape resident who coordinates their arrangements.

The stay at Village Crossings was a good change for Erik Corbett, 25, of Methuen, Mass., who drove up from his home early in the morning of race day 2004, rather than struggling to get ready in unfamiliar and difficult surroundings. This year, he got to “sleep in,” he said, because he was already in town, in accessible accommodations.

Hawkins, a Long Island native who drove up Friday in his van, and gave his friend Ayari a lift, participates in several races each year. He likes the Beach to Beacon for the workout.

“It’s a challenge because it’s not flat,” he said. But the hills also bring risk: “The most dangerous part is when you go down into the park,” heading downhill at top speed into a sharp right turn in toward the finish line.

Hawkins has been racing in his wheelchair for nearly 20 years now. “You have the opportunity to race almost every week,” he said.

He was paralyzed in a car crash during his senior year in high school. Hawkins, the captain of his school’s football team and a member of the lacrosse team, was sleeping in the passenger seat of a car whose driver was drunk.

Hawkins said it took him several years to get into wheelchair athletics after his accident, and he also had to adjust to an individual sport, in which he can compete against himself, from a team-sport mindset, in which winning is everything.

The biggest wheelchair race in the world is the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon in Japan, which attracts as many as 500 racers from around the world. In the 2004 race, Hawkins finished 74th, with a time of 2:05:59.

More than 100 wheelchair athletes compete in the New York City Marathon, which is where Ayari met his wife after winning the 2000 race. She asked for his autograph at the finish line, and he asked for her phone number.

Hawkins calls Ayari and others, who are professional racers rolling for a living “big-time athletes,” who are “as good an athlete” as the runners in the races.

Ayari, a native of Tunisia, North Africa, now living in New York said his wheelchair – all the racers’ chairs are custom-made – costs about $5,000, and when a tire blows that costs him another $150. A blowout happened in last year’s Beach to Beacon, during the rain squall that hit during the race. Ayari was able to change the tire and still finished third.

Though the wheelchair itself weighs only about 25 pounds, with the 135-pound Ayari aboard, it’s hard work. “You have to push all the weight with your fingers,” he said.

But for him it is work. He is sponsored by a wheelchair manufacturer and races for the prize money. He will be in the Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod next weekend, and wants to do well there too.

“I’m not looking to come to the race just to have fun,” said Ayari.

Fort Williams fees on the way

Published in the Current

CAPE ELIZABETH (Aug 11, 2005): With the Cape Elizabeth Town Council poised to look at a new report on fees at Fort Williams, November's election could decide whether visitors to the park will pay admission.

Although fees at the park have been shot down repeatedly in the past, a majority of councilors now say they either support fees or are at least open to the idea.

Two sitting councilors are in favor of fees at the park. In interviews with the Current, one additional councilor said he is “likely to favor” them and two others said they are considering the idea.

The remaining two oppose fees on a philosophical basis, with one, Councilor Jack Roberts saying “I think they're a terrible idea.” If the town is going to charge admission to the landmark, which has been kept free until now, “why don't we just gate the community,” he said.

Five different ways fees could be charged are outlined in a report from a Cape Elizabeth town commission, and will be discussed by the Town Council this fall. Councilors say any final decision will be only after public hearings and debate, bringing the decision after the Nov. 8 local election, when the occupants of two council seats are up to voters.

A proposal for fees was rejected by the council in 2003, considered again during 2004’s budget process and then put off, and was floated as one possible consequence if the 1 percent property-tax cap referendum had passed in November 2004.

A 2003 statewide survey by Critical Insights, a Portland research firm, showed 74 percent of Mainers supported a $5 annual per-vehicle fee at the fort; 69 percent of people in Southern Maine supported it. The question has not been asked since then, according to company president MaryEllen FitzGerald, a Cape resident.

“We may ask it again” in a September statewide survey, she said, adding that she did not expect a big change in the outcome.

The latest report, from the Fort Williams Advisory Commission, gives five options: charging a per-person fee, which would extend to cyclists and walkers, as well as people who drive to the park; charging a per-vehicle entry fee, which has raised concerns about traffic backups on Shore Road; charging a per-vehicle exit fee, which would move any traffic backups inside the park; installing “pay and display” parking meter machines; or an “envelope system” based on the largely voluntary process used in the White Mountain National Forest.

“For me it comes down to this: The park right now is free for everyone except residents of Cape Elizabeth, who pay for it with their tax dollars. I’d like to see that reversed,” said Councilor Mary Ann Lynch, a leading proponent of park entry fees.

Lynch said specifically that she does not want to charge walkers and cyclists, or Cape residents, for entry.

Need for money

Upkeep of the park costs taxpayers $115,000 in operating expenses and $37,000 in capital improvements in this year’s budget, according to Town Manager Mike McGovern.

“The park is expensive to maintain, and we are not really maintaining it,” Lynch said, citing the estimated $500,000 cost to preserve Goddard Mansion as a ruin.

She said a small fee for a year-long pass could bring in a lot of money. Estimates from 2003 indicated that charging $5 per car and $40 per bus would raise about $200,000, about 70 percent of which would come from out-of-staters. About 20 percent would come from Maine residents – half of that from Greater Portland residents.

Swift-Kayatta said she likes the idea of a fee “in the $5 per year range. … I don’t think it’s unfair” to have people who use the park contribute to its upkeep.

McGovern said he has “no idea” how many people visit the fort each year, and said the 1 million figure the town has used for more than a decade “seems high.”

Lynch said a $5 or $10 fee is similar to fees at other lighthouses she has visited, and less than beach parking in other towns, such as Scarborough’s $10-per-day parking at Pine Point.

“Let’s raise the money from our vacationing tourists,” said Lynch.

The plan could run up against the Fort Williams Charitable Foundation, created by the council in 2001 to raise money to support the park’s operations.

“For whatever reason it has not been as successful a fund-raising effort as people had hoped,” Lynch said. The foundation has asked for an easement on the fort property be granted to the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, saying the park needs “permanent protection” to garner big donors' dollars. The foundation disputes town officials’ claims that Fort Williams Park is already permanently protected, without an easement.

Councilor Carol Fritz said the foundation’s lack of success is because the council has “put a real damper on” its fund-raising ability, by refusing to grant an easement.

Election outcome key

Lynch said she expects the workshop to lead eventually to a formal proposal for the council to vote on.

Timing matters: Two years ago the council rejected the idea of fees by a consensus, with five councilors objecting to them and with Lynch and Anne Swift-Kayatta in the minority, supporting fees. Of the five-councilor majority, only two, Fritz and Roberts, are still on the council.

The seats now held by Roberts and Swift-Kayatta are expiring this year. Both are still undecided on a reelection bid.

Fritz said Tuesday she is “still pretty much opposed to having fees,” saying free access to the fort is “something that Cape Elizabeth contributes to the regional communities,” though if she had to choose, she would pick the “pay and display” option, as less obtrusive and possibly cheaper.

Fritz noted that three previous reports from the Fort Williams Advisory Commission have opposed fees. “It’s been shot down so many times, and the public says ‘no we don’t want it,’” she said.

Citing several local spots that are free for the public, including the trail around Back Cove and the Eastern Promenade, both in Portland, as well as Willard Beach and Bug Light Park in South Portland, Fritz said she “would hate to see us start a trend that closes off or begins to really charge for all these wonderful places.”

She also was concerned that fees could lower attendance at the museum and reduce income at the gift shop, which would reduce town revenue now used to support the fort, and about public perceptions of Cape Elizabeth.

“People think of the community as wealthy,” she said. If the town began charging, “would we then look like we’re trying to keep people out and have an elitist kind of park?”

Roberts could not be reached for comment.

Of the three councilors elected since the 2003 rejection, none has had to take a formal position on fees at the fort.

Councilor David Backer said Wednesday that despite his opposition to fees when he ran for council two years ago, “I’m coming around in my thinking.”

He cited the council’s self-imposed 3 percent spending cap as a reason “all sources of revenue have to be looked at as fair game. … I think that fees at Fort Williams may be an appropriate way to help supplement the income-versus-expenditure collision” the council is now experiencing. “At this point I’m likely to favor fees at the park,” he said, though he is not sure how they should be administered.

Councilor Paul McKenney said Tuesday that he had not made up his mind on fees. “It would be nice to see Fort Williams as a self-sufficient entity, but I’m not sure that fees are the way” to achieve that. His “first choice” would not be fees, but he said it is “reasonable” to ask park users to support the park financially.

Councilor Michael Mowles blamed the lack of state tax reform for the issue’s reemergence. “I don’t like the idea of having to charge fees at Fort Williams, but I’m open to considering the idea,” Mowles said Wednesday. “Given our current tax situation I’m more open to considering fees than I would have been a year ago,” he said.

Editorial: How could it happen?

Published in the Current

SCARBOROUGH (Aug 4, 2005): If the state is serious about driver safety – and they say they are, even recently stepping up police patrols on busy stretches of highways – it’s time for a registry of dangerous drivers, similar to the one we have for sex offenders.

A bad driver can pose a greater risk to more people in a single day than some sex offenders may in their whole lives. It’s time we knew who the worst drivers are, so we can protect ourselves and each other.

It’s shocking and tragic enough that Tina Turcotte of Scarborough was killed in a car crash last week. Our sympathies go out to her family and friends, who are no doubt reeling in shock. We hope they are also feeling love and support from those around them.

But what’s worse is that the driver of the truck has an extended history of traffic violations, including more than 42 convictions, has had his driver’s license suspended 19 times, and has been involved in five crashes, two of which have killed another driver.

Deputy Secretary of State Doug Dunbar said there are even more convictions that are not shown in state records, because of complications of the state’s computer system.

Scott Hewitt of Caribou, who was bailed out of jail just hours after the crash, might even be back on the road. The state has no way to know, and no way to prevent him from driving again.

And when he was driving Friday, Hewitt’s license was again under suspension, this time for failure to pay a court-imposed fine.

His state driving record starts when he was 19, showing Hewitt has had an average of more than three convictions every year.

Several of those convictions are for serious violations, including two for operating after suspension and one for operating after his license was revoked because he had so many driving-related convictions.

Among his 16 speeding convictions are four for driving double the posted speed limit – 50 mph in a 25 mph zone, 59 mph in a 30 mph zone, 53 mph in a 25 mph zone and 29 mph in a 15 mph zone. He also was convicted for breaking commercial trucking rules 10 times.

That’s just Hewitt. What’s even more scary is that there are others we don't know about. The state needs a way to get drivers them off the road, permanently.

Right now, there’s no way a person’s driver’s license can be permanently revoked. Even a person convicted of driving drunk and causing an accident that kills a person can appeal a revocation after 10 years.

It’s true that there is no practical way to monitor a person to make sure that they are never actually behind the wheel of a car. And such a person can still drive, and can get away with it.

There are parallels here with sex offenders, who also cannot practically be physically monitored to keep them away from children or other potential victims. They must be allowed to go about their lives after serving their sentences.

But they potentially pose a danger to the general public, and enough convicted sex offenders have committed subsequent offenses to generate public outcry.

Gov. John Baldacci has asked for a review to see what the state can do better.

It’s time for Maine to have a dangerous driver registry. After some number of convictions for traffic infractions – say six over three years – or even just one of a very serious nature, like doubling the speed limit, a person should be placed in a public registry for a period of time.

Residents in their communities should be notified. The dangerous drivers should have to register with their local police, and should know that their neighbors are watching them closely.

While that might not make the dangerous drivers reform, it would help neighbors in their communities to know what’s going on, and perhaps encourage the neighbors to call police when the offender backs out of the driveway.

Roads are public spaces, and when dangerous people are in control of heavy machines, we are all at risk.

Jeff Inglis, editor

Bahá’ís keep the faith in S.P.

Published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND (Aug 4, 2005): In his late 20s, Glenn Nerbak, raised Catholic, found his true religion: Bahá’í.

Nerbak, now a South Portland resident and one of 10 Bahá’ís in the city, had attended Catholic schools in his youth but had given up practicing religion during college because he felt there were too many questions he couldn’t find answers to. In his late 20s, he started searching again, to find a faith that fit.

Then, in his late 20s, he was playing basketball with a friend in Portsmouth, N.H., and happened to mention he needed a place to live. The friend’s parents had a place in Eliot, Maine, and the friend suggested he consider staying there.

The family were Bahá’ís, and near their place, which Nerbak rented and shared with his friend, was a Bahá’í center called Green Acres, where Nerbak began to learn about the faith.

Bahá’í is a monotheistic faith, believing in one God, and having aspects similar to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It teaches “progressive revelation,” in which God sends many messengers into the world over time, bringing universal teachings that never change, and rules and guidelines specific to the time the messengers arrive.

“It’s the most recent of the independent religions,” beginning in 1863. It has about 75 followers in Portland and a total of about 300 statewide. Nationally, there are 120,000 to 130,000, and five million to six million in more than 200 countries around the world.

Based on the oneness of humankind and the Golden Rule, and incorporating the teachings of Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Zoroaster and Muhammad, the Bahá’í faith teaches that the most recent messenger from God is Bahá’u’llah, born in 1817 in Persia – now Iran – into a Muslim family. As a young man, he followed another teacher, now considered a herald of Bahá’í, who was feared by the mainstream clerics, and was eventually executed, as were about 20,000 of his followers.

Bahá’u’llah was not executed, but went to prison, where, in a Tehran dungeon in 1853, he felt called by God, Nerbak said. The calling would result in the Bahá’í faith, but would also mean powerful clerics would keep him in prison or in exile for most of his life.

Even though Bahá’u’llah was born a Muslim, the Bahá’í faith is an independent religion, just as Jesus was born a Jew but founded Christianity, Nerbak said.

As he learned about Bahá’í, “I felt this is the religion for me.” A teacher himself, the idea of progressive revelation was appealing.

“It builds on previous knowledge,” the same way he teaches students lessons based on what they learned the previous year from another teacher, he said.

Bahá’u’llah wrote over 100 books throughout his life, some of which have not yet been translated into English. It is to those books that Bahá’ís look for wisdom and guidance.

“We’re a quiet religion. We don’t proselytize. We don’t have clergy,” Nerbak said.

One of Bahá’u’llah’s teachings about equality was the lack of a need for clergy to interpret his lessons. Instead, people were now educated well throughout the world, and could interpret the teachings for themselves.

Nerbak felt this was what he had been praying to find, and discounts the idea of the meeting with his friends’ parents being just an accident.

“Coincidence is like God’s way of remaining anonymous,” Nerbak said.

In the early 1980s, Nerbak went on a pilgrimage to the world headquarters of the Bahá’í faith, on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, a place Bahá’u’llah visited and pointed out to his followers as a place that should be a holy spot for them.

“It’s a wonderful place to be,” said Nerbak.

While there, he met a woman in whom he became interested, and she in him. But he reminded himself that he was on a pilgrimage: “I didn’t come here to meet someone,” he said.

Even as he prayed about what to do, a series of coincidences showed him that he was not just intoxicated by the beautiful surroundings and the holiness of the place. Among the events that revealed to him that she was the match of his life was when she pulled off a huge surprise party for his birthday.

They have been married for 20 years, and both are active in South Portland’s Bahá’í community. The group meets on the first day of every month of the Bahá’í calendar to talk about religion, as well as meet socially.

In 1990, they were invited to serve in Haifa, where they spent five years working in the administrative offices of the faith. He had to quit his job at Lyman Moore Middle School in Portland, but managed to get rehired when he returned.

The experience, and his practice of his faith, have brought him together with other people who are also working toward world unity.

“We’re united in a lot of realms,” including information and economic areas, but not in the political and religious areas, Nerbak said. But Bahá’ís recognize it will not happen overnight.

“The world has to be ready for it,” Nerbak said.

Another pipe found on Casino Beach

Published in the Current

CAPE ELIZABETH (Aug 4, 2005): A copper pipe was found in the surf on Casino Beach in Cape Elizabeth Tuesday evening, recalling the recovery of a similar item in June, which turned out to be a pipe bomb.

The item was found by a resident near the low-tide line, according to Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Neil Williams.

"It had obviously been in the water quite some time," he said. The pipe did not have any holes drilled in it for a fuse, but did have an end cap, similar to other pipe bombs.

There was no gunpowder or other explosive material in the pipe, Williams said.

He would not say whether the pipe was related to the previous pipe bomb, which has triggered an investigation into a 15-year-old Cape resident, in whose home police found explosives and pipes similar to those found on the beach.

Police have also found in his home a box sent from a fireworks company to the boy's mother's office in the Old Port and a videotape that court documents say shows the boy blowing up pipe bombs on Casino Beach the night before the first pipe was found.

Former chief still going strong

Published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND (Aug 4, 2005): Jim Darling of South Portland has helped train hundreds of South Portland drivers and shaped its police force, but his local ties run deeper still.

Darling, who turns 94 today, Aug. 4, was born in Ferry Village, and has stayed in the area his whole life. He and his family lived in Portland before becoming pioneers in the Broad Cove area of Cape Elizabeth. “We were the only ones there,” he said.

Darling remembers his father trying to get a skiff off the beach to get out to the boat during a northeaster, but the waves drove him back. “His boat eventually sunk that night,” taking to the bottom all of his traps and his dory.

The family – “there were 13 of us altogether” – stayed in Broad Cove eking out a living into the 1920s.

Darling went to school at the Bowery Beach schoolhouse, now the Lions’ Den.

“We walked a mile to get there,” up a dirt road, he said. “When the snow came, we just had a little trail up to the school.”

When he finished the five grades there, he still walked up there, to catch a horse-drawn wagon to class at Pond Cove School, where the Thomas Memorial Library is now. High school classes were held on the second floor of Town Hall.

“The summers were idyllic,” Darling said. “On the last day of school we came home, took off our shoes and didn’t put them back on until school started.”

Winters were different, living by kerosene lamps and well water. “It toughened you up in a lot of ways,” Darling said.

The family eventually moved to the Riverton area of Portland for a brief stay, and then to Front Street in South Portland.

Making a new life

Just after coming back to South Portland, Darling met the woman who would become his wife. The two were at a housewarming in Ferry Village and struck up a conversation, what Darling now calls “just one of those chance meetings, which turned out to be perfect.”

Merle, a bank teller, died in March at age 90, after 69 years of marriage. She was born on Feb. 4, so the couple would celebrate one’s birthday and the other’s half-birthday on those dates each year.

He works hard to keep her memory alive. Last week he baked a pineapple pie. “I found it in my wife’s recipe book. I don’t remember her ever making it and I thought I’d try it,” he said.

He and Merle raised three sons, Peter, who died in 2000 of asbestos-related cancer; George, who is a Methodist minister in Clinton; and Dana, who lives on Two Lights Road in Cape Elizabeth.

In February 1941, Darling started work with the South Portland police.

“I was the seventh man on the police department,” he said. “We had no training, nothing. You learned by doing.”

“During the war, they discovered there wasn’t enough young men who knew how to drive the trucks” the Army needed, so the federal government started driver education courses.

“I was always interested in traffic safety,” so Darling began teaching classes at South Portland High School, where he taught 80 kids a year for eight years, while also working full-time as a police officer.

As a result of his work, he attended a traffic safety institute at Northwestern University, from which he brought back many ideas that would become common practice in South Portland and nationwide.

Formalizing the police

“I put seat belts in cruisers,” he said, recalling having to convince people during test drives, zipping quickly around corners to show how seat belts can help prevent accidents by keeping drivers behind the wheel.

Later, “we were the first to use the breathalyzer.”

Another first is “burned” into his memory: “I was the first officer on the scene of that plane crash in Redbank,” on July 11, 1944, when a bomber clipped a tree while trying to land at the Portland airport.

He remembers the challenge of identifying the 15 dead, many burned beyond recognition.

“The one person who could identify them was a blind girl” who had talked to many of the victims earlier in the day and remembered what they said they were going to have for dinner, Darling said. “She knew what they ate,” allowing authorities to identify some victims by the contents of their stomachs.

On Jan. 1, 1959, Darling became chief of police, a job he held until retiring in 1968.

“I liked the work. I liked meeting the people, but you lose a lot of faith in human nature,” he said.

The couple enjoyed their retirement as well. Darling did more of the woodcarving that had been a hobby, making the seagull that sits out front of his house, as well as models of puffins, ducks, geese, eagles and owls that decorate the shelves inside and the homes of a few folks who bought them or were given them over the years.

For their 50th anniversary, Darling and Merle, then in their 70s, took a Volkswagen camper across the country, traveling 10,000 miles in 10 weeks on a marathon tour to see friends and family.

For his 85th birthday, his sons got him a dog. And last month, he got his first computer. “I can write an e-mail,” he said.

Maine Attraction: Portland's inland and coastal secrets

Published in National Geographic Adventure

Come August, Mainers and Maine-lovers take to Portland's Casco Bay like lobsters to salted herring. But while the bay's more than 200 islands offer countless opportunities for sailing, paddling, and lighthouse ogling, savvy visitors combine coastal attractions with inland thrills to create the ultimate seaside escape. Hit the coast, sure, but also bike a back road, climb a local hill, and save an evening or two to check out the urban scene in Portland's very own warehouse district-bum-boutique haven: the Old Port.

INN AND AROUND
Drop your bags. The 1835 vintage Inn at ParkSpring ($149; www.innatparkspring.com), just off Portland's bustling Old Port, offers an eclectic medley of lodgings, from 19th-century colonial bedchambers to renovated modern rooms - all air-conditioned to cool you down after a hard day's exploring. In the morning, get your fill of Maine blueberries and other local delicacies at the inn's breakfast table before setting out on your day's paddle or pedal.

Treat your ears. Seven nights a week, top local and regional artists, like the rockabilly group King Memphis, jam at the Free Street Taverna's downstairs bar (207-772-5483). Accompany the set with a pint of local summer ale like Geary's or Shipyard ($3).

Fill your belly. Wrap up your day's coastal adventures like a true-blue Mainer: Eat seafood from a plastic basket at a picnic table right on the rocky shore. The Lobster Shack at Two Lights (207-799-1677) in Cape Elizabeth specializes in steamed lobster and lobster rolls, but their lobster stew ($13) - a coastal favorite little known elsewhere - steals the show ($4 to $22 for entrées; lobster prices vary with market).

OUT AND ABOUT
Bike by morning. If you only have a few hours, rent a bike from CycleMania ($20 a day; www.cyclemania1.com) and head north out of town for the rolling countryside along the lightly traveled State Routes 9 and 115. Don't forget your snack money: At Toots Ice Cream (207-829-3723) on Walnut Hill Road, just south of the junction with Route 9 in North Yarmouth, you'll have a chance to meet the cows who contributed to your chocolate shake.

Hike by day. A scenic hour's drive northwest of Portland is Pleasant Mountain, in Bridgton, where the three-and-a-half mile (round-trip) Ledges Trail affords summit views that extend to New Hampshire's Mount Washington.

Paddle by night. Choppy surf and hidden rocks make a nocturnal paddle on Casco Bay a dicey proposition. But at Scarborough Marsh - the state's largest - you can paddle in the enchanting stillness of a full-moon night. Your naturalist guide from the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center ($12 for a one-and-a-half hour trip; www.maineaudubon.org) will attune you to the great horned owls hooting from their perches and the black-crowned night herons stalking in the darkness.

Resources: To find out about the best sea kayaking between Kennebunkport and Bar Harbor, take the ferry to Peaks Island to visit the Maine Island Kayak Company (800-796-2373; www.maineislandkayak.com). For other pursuits, stop by one of Maine MountainWorks's two Portland stores (207-879-1410).