Thursday, October 3, 2002

Public needs to weigh in on Cape school expansion

Published in the Current

Frustrated at being shut out of the planning process, Cape town councilors expect to have a workshop and a public hearing on the school renovation project before sending it to a town-wide referendum in May.

The plan, now estimated to cost $10 million for renovations to the high school and additions to Pond Cove School, remains under review by the school building committee and must be approved by that body and the School Board before going to the council in December.

“It’s a huge amount of money, number one,” said Town Council Chair Jack Roberts. “And number two, the council never appointed this building committee. If they had wanted to involve the council early on, they should have.”

The School Board-appointed building committee, headed by School Board Chair Marie Prager, took a preliminary version of the project to the town’s Planning Board in early September, before either the School Board or the Town Council had looked at the plans, Roberts said.

That’s ignoring the proper flow of this type of process, Roberts said. “It should be coming to the council first.”

The Planning Board did not make any formal decisions, but asked for site plans and a traffic analysis when they are available.

Roberts said the council has not had any official word on the project, though council finance Chair Mary Ann Lynch is a member of the building committee, as is Town Manager Michael McGovern.

Public support needed
Lynch said she, too, wants to hear from the town. “It’s a project of such a magnitude for our small town that it really needs to have the support of the public,” she said. It is especially true because it benefits “one segment of the town” and is paid for by the entire town.

She warned that in the current economic conditions, “the larger the number, the harder the project will be to sell.”

Roberts and Lynch have met with Prager and school finance Chair Elaine Moloney, but Roberts characterized those meetings as “laying down groundwork” for the upcoming budget process, which all parties expect to be difficult due to state budget problems.

Roberts said he first heard the dollar amounts for the school projects by reading local newspapers, and said he knows the building committee has “made a strong effort” to reduce costs from their initial $11.7 million amount.

The latest dollar amount is $9.9 million, with $7.4 million to renovate the high school and $2.5 million to add a kindergarten wing and an art room to Pond Cove School.

The next building committee workshop will focus on Pond Cove, following an Oct. 8 School Board vote on whether the addition will be two stories or one story. That decision will be made based on whether the town wants to keep open an option for all-day kindergarten.

The October School Board workshop will address programs for the high school and middle school. “We want to make sure that all programming issues are done before we start (building),” Prager said.

High School plans developing
The process of planning the building has continued, however. A Sept. 26 building committee meeting addressed work at the high school, and included the completely new idea of expanding the lighted lower field to become the school’s main field, as well as questions on costs for new parking spaces.

At that meeting, Prager said she wanted to develop four options. The first would be an unchanged $9.2 million project previously described as containing all the items on the “wish list” of school staff and administrators. The fourth option would be a “bare bones” project, including only “what we absolutely have to have,” Prager said. The second and third options would be “somewhere in between.”

Those options, she said, would be presented to the School Board Nov. 12 for a decision on which to send to the Town Council. At that time, Prager said, she and Moloney will meet with Roberts and Lynch, and then “with each councilor individually” to discuss the proposal.

Lynch, in attendance at the meeting, said the council would likely have a workshop and then a public hearing on the matter before voting to send it to referendum in May.

Some of the things the committee is looking at are a list of line items that could be added or deleted, including resurfacing the track, expanding the size of the school’s lighted lower field to accommodate varsity sports, reconfiguring the locker rooms to eliminate the need for a building addition, eliminating an addition to the cafeteria, and reupholstering the seats in the auditorium instead of replacing them.

Costs for the specific items have not yet been determined. A $500,000 sprinkler system will be included if local and state fire inspectors determine it is necessary.

The building committee will next meet at 7 p.m., Oct. 30, in the Jordan Conference Room in Town Hall and will make a report to the School Board at the board’s regular business meeting at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 12, in the Town Council Chambers.

Making your home safe from fire

Published in the Current

People should take the initiative to make sure their homes are safe from the dangers of fire. According to Cape Elizabeth Fire Chief Philip McGouldrick, there are a number of small projects that can dramatically improve a home’s fire safety. Some cost no money at all, and others are cheap.

• The most important tool is a smoke detector. Make sure you have smoke detectors installed on each floor of a home, including the basement and attic. Take an extra moment as part of a fall project to make sure they have fresh batteries – often when you change your clocks for Daylight-Saving Time. Also be sure to replace smoke detectors older than 10 years, McGouldrick said.

• Knowledge can also help fight fire. Teach everyone in the house how to shut off the electricity at the main circuit breaker, as well as how to turn off natural gas lines or propane tanks around the house. If valves can’t be closed without a wrench, be sure one is handy, McGouldrick said. Turning off sources of heat or explosive gases can prevent small fires from becoming very large ones.

• Adjust hot water heater settings to make sure the water is not hot enough to scald children. Many more people are burned by water that is too hot than by fires, McGouldrick said. As an added bonus, turning down hot water heaters can result in significant energy savings.

• Look again at where you have stored flammable liquids. Gasoline should never be stored indoors. It should be in a safety can outdoors. Oil paint, as well, should be in a metal container and stored outdoors. Never store gas or propane tanks in the basement, as their vapors are heavier than air and can collect in low places for some time before finding a pilot light or other way to catch fire. Propane for grills should be shut off at the tank when a grill is not in active use; if the tank valve is open, the hose could leak, permitting the buildup of explosive fumes.

• Buy fire extinguishers for your kitchen and for other areas of the home where you use heat regularly, such as a workshop. “Sometimes you get a fire and you can put it out before it spreads,” McGouldrick said. Read the directions before using it, and make sure it is properly maintained. They are good for small fires, like flames in a sauce pan on a stove, but should not be used to take on larger fires. For those, get out of the area and call 911 .

• In case you do have emergencies, make your home easy to find. The best way is to ensure your house numbers are clearly visible from the street, especially at night. There are also special light bulbs that can be triggered to flash on and off in a light on your front porch or lamppost, making it easier for emergency workers to find your home.

• Have the local fire department check your woodstove to be sure it is properly installed. Stoves that are not installed correctly can cause fires, even years after they are put in.

• Clean chimneys twice a year or more often if needed.

If you are doing larger projects, you can add fire safety to them without adding significant expense.

• Asphalt roof shingles can dramatically reduce the risk of your house catching fire if embers from a nearby house or brush fire fall on the roof.

• To further reduce the risk of a brush fire spreading to your home, clear the brush for several feet away from the house.

• Consider lightning rods. Many homes in this area are near trees that are taller, reducing the risk of a lightning strike. But, McGouldrick said, homes in newer developments and tall homes on local high ground could be at risk for a strike.

The ultimate in property protection and fire safety is a home sprinkler system, which can be installed using a pressurized water tank outside, or with a connection to a town water supply.

Sprinklers are equipped with bells to alert people to a fire, in addition to their use as fire extinguishers. They are 96 percent effective at putting out fires on their own, McGouldrick said, and 95 percent of sprinkler discharges are on very small fires.

Scarborough man kidnapped at gunpoint by carpenter

Published in the Current

A Scarborough man was kidnapped at gunpoint from his driveway Oct. 1 by a carpenter claiming he was owed money.

The two drove across Cumberland County in search of a bank to withdraw funds. They ended up at a Falmouth bank, where a teller called police, who arrested the kidnapper without incident.

At 7:10 a.m., Rodger Smith, 55, of Old Colony Lane was in his driveway when he was approached by Joseph Loughery, 43, of Poland, according to Falmouth Police Chief Edward Tolan. Loughery said he wanted payment for carpentry work done on Smith’s house a year ago.

Smith told Loughery he wasn’t going to pay, Tolan said, because the quality of the work was poor.

At that point, Loughery produced a 9-millimeter handgun from a shoulder holster and told Smith the gun had two bullets, “one for his wife and one for his knee,” Tolan said.

Smith’s wife was home, but was unaware of the situation, said Falmouth Detective Tom Brady.

Loughery demanded payment for work done on Smith’s home about a year ago, Tolan said. Scarborough Code Enforcement Officer Dave Grysk said the only permit Smith had for 2001 was for a 14-by-18-foot porch to be constructed at his home.

The work was to be done by “Joe the Carpenter,” the name under which
Loughery does business.

Fearing for his wife’s safety, Smith agreed to drive Loughery to a bank where Smith would withdraw the money to pay for the work, Tolan said. They drove around the area because a number of banks weren’t open, ending up at the Peoples Heritage Bank on Route 1 in Falmouth, Tolan said.

In the parking lot, Loughery again showed Smith the gun and the two bullets, all of which were in a briefcase on Loughery’s lap, and followed Smith partway into the bank. Smith went to a teller while Loughery stood in the foyer and then outside the bank, Tolan said.

Smith told the teller that he had been kidnapped at gunpoint and asked the teller to call police. The call came into the Falmouth police at 9:12 a.m., reporting a man with a gun at the bank, Tolan said, leading officers to believe they had a possible bank robbery on their hands.

Upon arrival, officers saw Loughery outside the bank and “subdued him without incident,” Tolan said. A search of the car turned up the gun, wo bullets and two pairs of handcuffs. “You can surmise whatever you think those handcuffs were to be used for,” Tolan said.

Falmouth police are handling the charges from the incident, which is considered a “continuing crime” that began in Scarborough and ended in Falmouth, according to Tolan and Scarborough Detective Sgt. Rick Rouse.

Loughery was arraigned Wednesday morning on charges of kidnapping and two counts of criminal threatening with a firearm, all felonies. A misdemeanor charge of violation of probation was not part of the arraignment but is expected, Detective Brady said.

Brady said Loughery was on probation in Androscoggin County for a second offense of operating under the influence, and was to be transferred to the Androscoggin County Jail after his arraignment in Portland District Court Wednesday morning.

He said Loughery is originally from out of state and had traveled around the country a lot. Tolan said his department is in the process of conducting a nationwide records search for Loughery’s criminal history, if there is any.

Phone calls from the Current to the Smith residence were not returned, and there was no answer at the door of their home Wednesday afternoon.

Neighbors on Old Colony Lane said the Smiths had not been home the evening after the incident and did not know how to contact them.

Thursday, September 26, 2002

Cape’s enrollment going up despite prediction

Published in the Current

When they started planning for an expansion and renovation to the high school, Cape Elizabeth school officials wanted to know what school enrollments would look like 10 years out.

In October 2000, South Portland-based Planning Decisions issued a draft report to the schools indicating that the district’s student body would decline slightly overall from 2001 to 2011. That decline is not happening yet, according to school enrollment numbers. Instead, student numbers are climbing slightly, to a point where, two years from the date the study was conducted, there are 64 more students than predicted.

Rebecca Wandell, a project analyst at Planning Decisions, said the study was based on historical trends in Cape Elizabeth and did not take into account variations in those trends, or new construction beyond previous annual averages.

The study included two sets of estimates, one called “best fit,” which was based solely on historical data, and one set called “high,” assuming 30 new single family homes would be built each year, and that those new homes would result in 12 new students each year.

The “best fit” model projected that there would be 1,734 students in the school system in 2001-2002, dropping to 1,717 students for 2002-2003. The “high” model predicted 1,757 in 2001-2002 and 1,752 in 2002-2003. Both indicated slowly declining school populations through 2010-2011.

The actual data shows there were 1,759 students in 2001-2002, rising to 1,781 this school year, 64 students more than the “best fit” projected and 29 more than the “high” model.

“We are either at the high end in most cases, or in some cases exceeding the high end” of the projections, said Superintendent Tom Forcella.

That difference has meant there is no reliable enrollment model for school officials to use when planning new facilities and deciding how much room to set aside for uses as wide-ranging as cafeteria tables and parking, much less classroom space.

The projected downward trend in student numbers has not begun and is not even on the horizon yet, Forcella said. The best he can do is use the “high” model numbers and make guesses beyond that.

He is not sure why the differences have occurred, but has a theory. It has long been the case in Cape that some students will attend private all-day kindergartens rather than the half-day kindergarten offered by the schools.

The estimates have projected that those students will enroll in the town’s first grade. Forcella said this is not necessarily happening.

Instead, some of the private kindergartens have added first-grade classes. Parents choose to keep their kids in the private school for a year, before enrolling them in the town schools as they enter second grade.

The estimates do not take that delayed enrollment into account.

Forcella said it has happened in the past couple of years, resulting in a larger-than-expected second grade class.

Actual enrollment numbers depart from the projections from elementary through middle school, though they get closer together in high school.

“We don’t really know why,” Forcella said.

Wandell has some ideas. She admits Forcella could be right. She also said some of the study’s assumptions could be wrong: More new homes might have been built than were included in the model, and more children might be in each home than the model assumed.

In 2001, there were 34 new single family homes built, followed by 31 new homes so far in 2002, more homes than the model assumed.

As for children in the home, the birth rate is stable in Cape, Wandell said, though it was slightly higher in 2001, with 82 babies born to parents in the town. She said that would tend to indicate more families are moving in.

But she defended the accuracy of the survey, which differs from the actual numbers by less than 3 percent in most of the figures. “Statistically, we’re not off by a significant amount,” Wandell said.

She admitted that looking at the numbers from a standpoint of statistical validity is different from trying to use the numbers to predict class size and make projections for numbers of classrooms and teachers in the future.

Going forward, she said, the schools could update the study or begin to build their own estimates by surveying buyers of homes in town about the number of children they have and their ages.

Middle school students learn about life in the outdoors

Published in the Current

The outdoor education theme running through the four Cape Elizabeth Middle School grades will begin this week with the eighth graders’ participation in the statewide Coastal Cleanup.

The students will work in several areas around town, including Alewife, Boathouse, Broad, Johnson, Maiden, Peabbles, Pond and Staples coves, and Cliff House Beach.

“What we try to do in the eighth grade is give something back to the community,” said eighth grade teacher team leader, Mary Murphy.

The students also work with people of all ages around town, raking leaves from the lawns of senior citizens in a program organized by the police department, and doing trail maintenance and construction for the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, under the supervision of high school seniors.

In each activity, students learn about the natural environment and about aspects of the community they might not otherwise experience.

The final year builds on lessons learned during the previous three years at the middle school.

The program starts in fifth grade, where it is closely tied to the science curriculum. Teachers focus on “getting kids outside the classroom,” said fifth grade team leader, Cheryl Higgins.

Students take three field trips, including one to Kettle Cove in the fall to look at tidal pools and marine life. That excursion is scheduled for the end of September or the beginning of October, depending on weather.

In the spring, fifth-graders head to Fort Williams with their compasses to take on a 10-station orienteering course, using map and compass skills learned in the classroom. And in late spring, they head off to Two Lights to look at flora and fauna and do plant identification in the field.

Students also learn to work together, facing challenges and assignments in small groups. That leads to the sixth-grade experience, which was the original element in the program.

For 13 or 14 years, sixth-graders have gone to Camp Chewonki in Wiscasset for an outdoor living program, in which they learn camping skills and are responsible for pitching their own tents, cooking, chopping wood and cleaning.

Students learn to work together and form new relationships with classmates. They are assigned to groups of 10 or 12, and are separated from groups of friends. This allows them to learn and grow outside of their typical social groups, said team leader, Gary Record.

Chewonki’s lessons include group and individual challenges.

The trip isn’t until May, but sessions each Friday in sixth grade classrooms present group activities similar to Chewonki’s, to get students ready.

Last year’s class was so large it was split into two groups to attend on two different weeks. This year’s class is “almost as large,” Record said, but will go all at once.

Seventh-graders will head to Camp Kieve in Nobleboro, to attend the Leadership Development Institute, a week-long program in which students work closely with members of their advisory groups.

They learn decision-making, relationship skills and self-confidence in challenge-by-choice activities such as ropes courses. There is also time for self-examination and solo reflection during the five-day program, said seventh grade team leader, Matt Whaley.

“It’s a great place,” Whaley said.

This year, students will go to Kieve from Oct. 7 to 11 rather than the end of November, when previous classes have attended. A cancellation from another school allowed Cape to change to that week, which is expected to be warmer and more comfortable for outdoor activities.

In seventh grade, as in all the grades, teachers revisit lessons learned in previous experiences and earlier in the school year. When they go to Kieve, Chewonki, or even just to Fort Williams, “we try to bring it back afterwards,” Whaley said.