Published in the Current
At a Tuesday Cape School Board meeting packed with 100 people largely supporting fired basketball coach Jim Ray, board Chairman Marie Prager told the crowd that only two would be able to speak.
Among the audience were about 25 basketball coaches from throughout Southern Maine, standing in the balcony overlooking the meeting space, silent but all wearing pins reading “J Ray Must Stay.” Most other audience members also wore the pins.
Only two people, who had contacted the board ahead of time, were allowed to express their views. Grady Stevens, father of three former athletes coached by Ray, read a statement signed by 238 people in support of Ray, and also read email messages from three recent graduates.
“To say the least, his termination is bewildering,” Stevens said. “The community deserves an explanation.” His remarks were followed by thunderous applause. Prager gaveled the meeting back to order, saying “please stop, please stop.”
Tom Tinsman, also the father of three former Ray players, was the other speaker. He said he wants to see the evaluation.
“I’m hoping as a citizen in this town that we find out what is in that report,” he told the board.
Tinsman said he supports Superintendent Tom Forcella, Principal Jeff Shedd and the School Board, and wants Ray to improve his coaching.
“He has some attributes which are not conducive to good learning,” Tinsman said. “Over the years I’ve been treated with total disrespect,” he said.
“My hope is that Jim Ray can come before this board, admit his mistakes, apologize for them, accept the recommendations given to him by his boss and go on,” he said.
“Only (Ray) knows why he chose not to do those things,” Tinsman said. “We need to know where he stands.” Two people applauded Tinsman’s
Discussion cut short
When those two people had spoken, Prager said that ended the discussion for now.
“This is not something that is on our agenda,” she said. She promised that a future meeting would be scheduled where people could be heard. “It’s very important that everyone interested in this matter be heard,” she said.
“The board realizes it must review this matter in detail. Right now we are sitting here before you not having any information in this matter,” Prager said. “Everyone needs to calm down and know that the School Board will approach this matter with an open mind.”
Prager said after the meeting she did not know when a followup meeting would occur.
According to Ray’s attorney, Gerald Petruccelli, the next step is to wait for the School Board and its attorney to define the appeal’s process for fired coaches, because none appears to exist.
What people wanted to know at the meeting was what prompted Ray’s evaluation and dismissal as coach of the Cape Elizabeth boys varsity basketball team.
That’s the question Ray and supporters hope to answer as Ray begins his appeal before the Cape School Board – a process he hopes will lead to his reinstatement.
Many of the answers are cloaked in the name of “it’s a personnel matter,” and may remain that way. Some, however, believe, as one Ray supporter put it Friday night, it may not be a personnel matter so much as it is a personal one.
Friday night rally
About 100 people attended a rally Friday night in the high school cafeteria and spent two hours speaking calmly but emotionally in support of Ray. While many were involved with the basketball program, a number of speakers also knew Ray from his work in the community or as classroom teacher.
Several of the speakers thanked Principal Shedd for being the only school administrator to attend the meeting. It was Shedd’s evaluation of Ray that led to the coach’s dismissal by Superintendent Forcella. Shedd declined to answer any of the questions put to him on that topic.
Absent from the meeting were Forcella, his two sons, Dan and John, who play for Ray, long-time Cape Athletic Administrator Keith Weatherbie, and Coach Ray.
Early in the rally, a motion to file a statement with the School Board in support of Ray passed unanimously, with Booster President Tim Thompson designated to read it during Tuesday’s board meeting. When asked if he was comfortable reading the statement, Thompson replied he might not have the honor because he expected a vote for new officers later in the meeting would remove him.
Later, Thompson, who was not perceived to be a strong Ray fan, was, in fact, voted out of office. Two Ray supporters, Dave Reid and John Doherty, were elected president and vice president, respectively.
Kertes threatens to quit
Just a few weeks after coaching his team to its second consecutive girls swim championship, Kerry Kertes surprised the rally by announcing, “I’ll resign as teacher and coach” if Ray is done. “I’m very, very tired,” Kertes said, “of two or three unhappy people, a vocal minority” driving away “good people.”
Several people asked Shedd about the evaluation process and how it was conducted, a question he wouldn’t answer. Kertes addressed that directly, saying he’s never been evaluated as coach, and only for 20 minutes as teacher. “No one’s ever told me if I’m a good coach, no one’s ever told me if I’m a good teacher,” Kertes said.
Kertes said he told Shedd, “it’s a very lonely job being a coach at Cape Elizabeth. Even when you win, it’s not enough.”
Bob Brown, another well-known and respected local basketball coach, spoke at the rally. Brown, who coached the Cheverus boys to the Class A final game this year, also spoke earlier in the year at a hearing on behalf of Bonny Eagle coach TJ Hesler. (Hesler was suspended by Bonny Eagle administrators after disciplining a player for inappropriate conduct during a
game. After sitting out two games, Hesler was reinstated, but resigned at the end of the season.)
Brown earned a standing ovation with a rousing speech that had most in attendance ready to lace up the sneakers and take to the court for him. Brown said that Ray is one of the most respected coaches in the state, and his firing “is almost a joke. No one can believe it.”
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Wednesday, April 9, 2003
Truck spills fuel in S.P.
Published in the American Journal
A tanker truck carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel flipped over early Monday morning, spilling jet fuel into the street and into storm drains leading to the Fore River and Casco Bay.
The truck overturned right outside the South Portland Central Fire Station at the corner of Broadway and Route 77, and closed the Casco Bay Bridge for hours, delaying traffic heading from Portland to South Portland.
Jon Woodard of the state Department of Environmental Protection said the truck was carrying 8,000 gallons. “All of it was released from the truck,” he said. Some was contained on the street and some went into storm drains leading to the water.
“We have collected a lot of it,” Woodard said. The DEP and Clean Harbors, a South Portland-based environmental company handling the cleanup, are using booms to contain the jet fuel that flowed into the water.
Woodard said the state Department of Marine Resources is sampling the water in the Fore River and Portland harbor to make sure no fuel escaped. He said there have been a few small sheens reported in both of those areas, but does not believe any significant amount escaped containment.
A spokesman for Clean Harbors said the amount of the spill was “sizeable.” The company said it would not have a good handle on how long the cleanup will take before the American Journal’s deadline.
It will take at least until Wednesday afternoon, according to the South Portland Police Department. A cruiser has been assigned to block the right-turn lane coming off the bridge onto Broadway through Wednesday afternoon. That will allow cleanup workers to use the road as they collect contaminated dirt from the area around the spill.
Woodard said the level of environmental damage remained to be seen. He said the plants “are not really out yet,” and may not suffer much damage, while marine animals and shellfish have different levels of sensitivity to contaminants.
A tanker truck carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel flipped over early Monday morning, spilling jet fuel into the street and into storm drains leading to the Fore River and Casco Bay.
The truck overturned right outside the South Portland Central Fire Station at the corner of Broadway and Route 77, and closed the Casco Bay Bridge for hours, delaying traffic heading from Portland to South Portland.
Jon Woodard of the state Department of Environmental Protection said the truck was carrying 8,000 gallons. “All of it was released from the truck,” he said. Some was contained on the street and some went into storm drains leading to the water.
“We have collected a lot of it,” Woodard said. The DEP and Clean Harbors, a South Portland-based environmental company handling the cleanup, are using booms to contain the jet fuel that flowed into the water.
Woodard said the state Department of Marine Resources is sampling the water in the Fore River and Portland harbor to make sure no fuel escaped. He said there have been a few small sheens reported in both of those areas, but does not believe any significant amount escaped containment.
A spokesman for Clean Harbors said the amount of the spill was “sizeable.” The company said it would not have a good handle on how long the cleanup will take before the American Journal’s deadline.
It will take at least until Wednesday afternoon, according to the South Portland Police Department. A cruiser has been assigned to block the right-turn lane coming off the bridge onto Broadway through Wednesday afternoon. That will allow cleanup workers to use the road as they collect contaminated dirt from the area around the spill.
Woodard said the level of environmental damage remained to be seen. He said the plants “are not really out yet,” and may not suffer much damage, while marine animals and shellfish have different levels of sensitivity to contaminants.
PWD not interested in lease plan
Published in the Current and the American Journal
A legislative bill that caused a big stir in Standish now appears unlikely to have any real impact on the town’s tax rolls.
Rep. Janet McLaughlin, D-Cape Elizabeth, proposed a bill that would allow water and sewer districts, including the Portland Water District, to raise ready cash under a lease-and-lease-back arrangement. Under the proposal,
district-owned buildings and equipment would be leased to a private entity, which could then take depreciation of the assets off their taxes.
Standish residents and officials were excited that the town might be a beneficiary of private control of the district’s assets, worth as much as $50 million, because they would no longer be tax exempt as they are now under PWD ownership.
Not only is the bill now tabled pending the input of the Legislature’s finance committee, but it could be revamped to excise any portions that would result in the transfer of ownership of any PWD equipment or buildings, leaving Standish’s hands empty of any new taxes.
Rep. Larry Bliss, D-South Portland, who heads the Legislature’s utilities committee, said last week that state law would require the state to pay half of the tax liability for any private property it exempts from tax. Under the proposal, the state would have granted that exemption.
A letter circulated to Standish town councilors suggested that PWD property is now worth $50 million. At Standish’s $20.48 per thousand tax rate, half of its potential property tax is $512,000, which the state would have to reimburse under the proposal.
That would be unlikely to pass in this tight budget season, Bliss said.
And the district is not interested anyway. PWD trustee chairman Howard Littlefield of Cape Elizabeth said there was nothing in the proposal the district would be likely to use.
The lease-and-lease-back arrangement was designed to provide ready cash to districts, paid by investors, who would take depreciation tax deductions on the district’s assets over time.
The tax-exempt district does not now receive any credit for depreciation. The bill would not allow the lease or sale of water rights, and transactions would be unlikely to include much real estate, because land does not depreciate.
A legislative bill that caused a big stir in Standish now appears unlikely to have any real impact on the town’s tax rolls.
Rep. Janet McLaughlin, D-Cape Elizabeth, proposed a bill that would allow water and sewer districts, including the Portland Water District, to raise ready cash under a lease-and-lease-back arrangement. Under the proposal,
district-owned buildings and equipment would be leased to a private entity, which could then take depreciation of the assets off their taxes.
Standish residents and officials were excited that the town might be a beneficiary of private control of the district’s assets, worth as much as $50 million, because they would no longer be tax exempt as they are now under PWD ownership.
Not only is the bill now tabled pending the input of the Legislature’s finance committee, but it could be revamped to excise any portions that would result in the transfer of ownership of any PWD equipment or buildings, leaving Standish’s hands empty of any new taxes.
Rep. Larry Bliss, D-South Portland, who heads the Legislature’s utilities committee, said last week that state law would require the state to pay half of the tax liability for any private property it exempts from tax. Under the proposal, the state would have granted that exemption.
A letter circulated to Standish town councilors suggested that PWD property is now worth $50 million. At Standish’s $20.48 per thousand tax rate, half of its potential property tax is $512,000, which the state would have to reimburse under the proposal.
That would be unlikely to pass in this tight budget season, Bliss said.
And the district is not interested anyway. PWD trustee chairman Howard Littlefield of Cape Elizabeth said there was nothing in the proposal the district would be likely to use.
The lease-and-lease-back arrangement was designed to provide ready cash to districts, paid by investors, who would take depreciation tax deductions on the district’s assets over time.
The tax-exempt district does not now receive any credit for depreciation. The bill would not allow the lease or sale of water rights, and transactions would be unlikely to include much real estate, because land does not depreciate.
Biode puts high-tech twist on measuring thickness
Published in the Current and the American Journal
What Biode Inc. has to sell is only slightly larger than a postage stamp, and the company hopes to reach as diverse a range of buyers. Their solid-state digital viscometer, built to measure the thickness of liquids from motor oil to shampoo, is in the testing phase and has generated interest from prospective buyers including the U.S. Navy and Procter and Gamble.
Biode’s office hides in the back of a building on Larrabee Road in Westbrook. Chief Technology Officer Kerem Durdag of Scarborough said the company was founded in 1986 to do research and development on ways to detect contaminants in liquids.
In the mid-1990s, the company chose to focus on commercializing one of the products it had developed, the viscometer. Most viscometers are mechanical instruments requiring very precise environmental conditions for proper measurements, Durdag said.
“The viscometry market is very mature,” he said. The successful companies in the sector have been around for 60 years or more, making the same type of equipment now as then.
They have a broad market base, though, one that is attractive to Biode.
“Anything that is gooey, (someone) will measure viscosity on it,” Durdag said. The usual method in industry today involves taking a sample of a fluid, like shampoo, somewhere in the manufacturing process, taking it to a lab for testing, and reading the results some time later to make adjustments in the process.
Real-time viscosity measurements are not possible most of the time because of the equipment required to take the measurements, Durdag said. Biode’s digital viscometer has no moving parts, which prevents it from “gumming up,” he said.
Biode’s device can fit in a pipe to give real-time data feeds, or can be used on a tabletop to handle samples from vials or test tubes. Connected to a standard PC laptop using a commercially available data-acquisition card and software, the viscometer can start reading data immediately and requires no power source.
Instead, it is what is called a “surface acoustic wave device,” which operates by vibrating on an atomic level, Durdag said. When the measuring surface is exposed to a fluid, the vibration changes as a result of “viscous damping,” allowing the device to measure how easy it is to shake the fluid around.
Biode has approached companies that are traditionally early adopters of technology, as well as large operations that might want in-stream process measurements.
Among the interested clients are Procter and Gamble’s shampoo manufacturing, beer companies that want to know how their malt syrup is doing, and the U.S. Navy.
“They like to do oil sampling on their ships at very frequent intervals,” Durdag said. Mechanical devices can’t work on ships because they require a level surface to base their readings on. So the Navy, at great expense, flies helicopters between ships and land-based laboratories carrying jars of oil to be tested.
The Navy is now testing Biode’s device, which would allow real-time readings even aboard ship, and may phase it in over time, Durdag said.
The company has taken advantage of a number of state business-assistance programs in the four years since it started work to bring the viscometer to market.
One of the most important services was the patent program at the UMaine School of Law in Portland, Durdag said. It allows companies to get access to patent attorneys at reasonable charges to protect their intellectual property rights.
“Maine tends to be fairly risk-averse to tech, when it comes to startups,” Durdag said. That makes it hard to get money, but the Maine Technology Institute has grants for this type of activity, and the Maine Seed Capital Tax Program is also useful, giving investors in qualifying companies 40 percent of their money back in tax credits. Maine Investment Exchange and the Small Enterprise Growth Fund also have played large roles in helping Biode raise the money it needed to continue development.
Part of the problem in the private sector was that Maine investors are used to short business cycles, more in line with agricultural or marine businesses, in which increased investment leads to higher yield almost immediately. Technology is slower, which can make it harder to find money, Durdag said.
Durdag was, however, able to turn to other state companies as component suppliers. The circuit boards are from Enercon Technologies in Gray and Knox Semiconductor in Rockland. “We’re leveraging a good amount of Maine stuff here,” Durdag said.
Maine companies may also be good buyers for it, he said. When the device goes on the market in the summer, the company plans to approach paper companies to see if they want to use it in their manufacturing process. Durdag is already working on a test at the UMaine paper mill test center in Orono.
“We’re crazy enough to think wecan do it,” Durdag said.
What Biode Inc. has to sell is only slightly larger than a postage stamp, and the company hopes to reach as diverse a range of buyers. Their solid-state digital viscometer, built to measure the thickness of liquids from motor oil to shampoo, is in the testing phase and has generated interest from prospective buyers including the U.S. Navy and Procter and Gamble.
Biode’s office hides in the back of a building on Larrabee Road in Westbrook. Chief Technology Officer Kerem Durdag of Scarborough said the company was founded in 1986 to do research and development on ways to detect contaminants in liquids.
In the mid-1990s, the company chose to focus on commercializing one of the products it had developed, the viscometer. Most viscometers are mechanical instruments requiring very precise environmental conditions for proper measurements, Durdag said.
“The viscometry market is very mature,” he said. The successful companies in the sector have been around for 60 years or more, making the same type of equipment now as then.
They have a broad market base, though, one that is attractive to Biode.
“Anything that is gooey, (someone) will measure viscosity on it,” Durdag said. The usual method in industry today involves taking a sample of a fluid, like shampoo, somewhere in the manufacturing process, taking it to a lab for testing, and reading the results some time later to make adjustments in the process.
Real-time viscosity measurements are not possible most of the time because of the equipment required to take the measurements, Durdag said. Biode’s digital viscometer has no moving parts, which prevents it from “gumming up,” he said.
Biode’s device can fit in a pipe to give real-time data feeds, or can be used on a tabletop to handle samples from vials or test tubes. Connected to a standard PC laptop using a commercially available data-acquisition card and software, the viscometer can start reading data immediately and requires no power source.
Instead, it is what is called a “surface acoustic wave device,” which operates by vibrating on an atomic level, Durdag said. When the measuring surface is exposed to a fluid, the vibration changes as a result of “viscous damping,” allowing the device to measure how easy it is to shake the fluid around.
Biode has approached companies that are traditionally early adopters of technology, as well as large operations that might want in-stream process measurements.
Among the interested clients are Procter and Gamble’s shampoo manufacturing, beer companies that want to know how their malt syrup is doing, and the U.S. Navy.
“They like to do oil sampling on their ships at very frequent intervals,” Durdag said. Mechanical devices can’t work on ships because they require a level surface to base their readings on. So the Navy, at great expense, flies helicopters between ships and land-based laboratories carrying jars of oil to be tested.
The Navy is now testing Biode’s device, which would allow real-time readings even aboard ship, and may phase it in over time, Durdag said.
The company has taken advantage of a number of state business-assistance programs in the four years since it started work to bring the viscometer to market.
One of the most important services was the patent program at the UMaine School of Law in Portland, Durdag said. It allows companies to get access to patent attorneys at reasonable charges to protect their intellectual property rights.
“Maine tends to be fairly risk-averse to tech, when it comes to startups,” Durdag said. That makes it hard to get money, but the Maine Technology Institute has grants for this type of activity, and the Maine Seed Capital Tax Program is also useful, giving investors in qualifying companies 40 percent of their money back in tax credits. Maine Investment Exchange and the Small Enterprise Growth Fund also have played large roles in helping Biode raise the money it needed to continue development.
Part of the problem in the private sector was that Maine investors are used to short business cycles, more in line with agricultural or marine businesses, in which increased investment leads to higher yield almost immediately. Technology is slower, which can make it harder to find money, Durdag said.
Durdag was, however, able to turn to other state companies as component suppliers. The circuit boards are from Enercon Technologies in Gray and Knox Semiconductor in Rockland. “We’re leveraging a good amount of Maine stuff here,” Durdag said.
Maine companies may also be good buyers for it, he said. When the device goes on the market in the summer, the company plans to approach paper companies to see if they want to use it in their manufacturing process. Durdag is already working on a test at the UMaine paper mill test center in Orono.
“We’re crazy enough to think wecan do it,” Durdag said.
Thursday, April 3, 2003
Join the hunt: Chase away lions, wherever they be
Published in the Portland Phoenix
Written by John Urquhart. Directed by Pamela DiPasquale. With Mohamed Abdirahman, Jared Mongeau, Catherine Wallace, and Hue Edwards. At the Children’s Theatre of Maine, through April 6. Call (207) 878-2774.
The future of Maine theater is here. The people in Lewiston still haven’t put their Somali neighbors’ experiences on stage, but the Children’s Theatre of Maine has. Lion Hunting on Munjoy Hill is the most important, relevant play on Maine stages this season, a brilliant show that all Mainers should see, the better to understand ourselves and our neighbors, both new and old.
Within the confines of a simple set combining a market, Congress Street, and the Portland Observatory, Portland playwright John Urquhart crystallizes the immigrant experience in Maine, sharply portraying harassment by local teens, police insensitivity and recalcitrance, proud and strong immigrants, overbearing social-service workers, lost dreams, and identity crisis. It is a world white Maine too rarely sees, and often prefers to ignore.
Urquhart based the script on interviews conducted with Portland’s immigrants and lays out their lives in strong, vibrant characters. The actors bring their own experiences to the roles, making them uniquely authentic and powerful, even beyond their clear talents. And the simplicities required by children’s theater do not preclude deep, layered meanings that are great for parent-child conversation.
There are warning bells clanging loudly here. In this play, Portland’s cops are shown as do-nothing buffoons, complete with red clown-noses, who have no desire or ability to help the most vulnerable Portlanders. Social service workers are exposed as dithering do-gooders who want to mold kids into a sad American " ideal. "
Immigrants’ own contradictions are also put on display, from the frustration of Long (Hue Edwards) with her mother’s refusal to label products in English to attract tourist buyers, to the false, but lucrative, American patriotism of Ivan, the Russian street vendor (Eli Doucette).
Small vignettes illuminate other aspects of immigrant life, showing the hardships of interracial puppy love and the sacrifices immigrants must make, leaving respected professions to become housecleaners. These are real: Ask the woman who runs the Vientiane Market what she used to do for work in Bangkok.
This play should open lines of dialogue throughout the city, and open eyes in every neighborhood in Maine. Even a benign lack of knowledge of other cultures can be painful for newcomers to bear. An innocent child’s question, " Where are you from? " turns into a geography lesson, complete with world map. And " What is that ‘S’ on your shirt? " becomes a confession of immigrant vulnerability, because, as the response instructs, " Everyone knows who Superman is. "
Not Asad, the Somali boy who arrived two weeks ago and is played powerfully by 11-year-old Somali-born Mohamed Abdirahman, cast just three weeks before the show opened. CTM Managing Director Stacy Begin said the challenge of finding actors who met the show’s ethnic requirements was not small.
It took weeks to find Mohamed’s family, and, even then, the two weeks of explaining and negotiating had to go through an interpreter. Cultural mores prevented his sister from performing by his side.
The whole casting process took a hurried three months for this play, as contrasted with the usual seasonal auditions casting three or four shows in one weekend. Even so, CMT couldn’t find a Cambodian girl, so they changed two characters to be Vietnamese. And they couldn’t find a Russian teenager, picking instead an Anglo teen, Doucette, with an excellent Russian accent. " I hope it will encourage other kids to (audition), " Begin said.
It should — a recent show’s audience included a smattering of ethnic backgrounds, though, as the play points out, even native-born Americans call themselves something else. Danny (Jared Mongeau) is Irish, but it is the immigrants who worry most about identity, and have dreams far removed from those of their US-born friends.
When violence strikes, the immigrants bond together to make it right, though still cowed by their newness in town. It takes Asad, who wants to help but knows he can’t take on bully white teens alone, to come up with the idea. " Superman only helps white people. We need another superhero on Munjoy Hill, " Asad says. He remembers a time, before Somalia was torn apart by war, when villagers would have to protect themselves against lions by repeatedly scaring them away.
He teaches the kids, who come into their jubilant and powerful own with this task, how to hunt lions. They dress up in hilariously cute costumes and race about the theater empowered, yelling " hunt! hunt! hunt! " until their unity and strength drive away the bullies. But even after success, Asad is wary: " Lions always come back. "
Written by John Urquhart. Directed by Pamela DiPasquale. With Mohamed Abdirahman, Jared Mongeau, Catherine Wallace, and Hue Edwards. At the Children’s Theatre of Maine, through April 6. Call (207) 878-2774.
BACKSTAGE
• The free workshop showing of Tim Rubel’s Eggs Over Eric just wound up. A longish one-act with strong interaction and dialogue and excellent emotional moments, it has been entered in PSC’s Clauder competition.
• Michael Tobin, formerly at MainePlay Productions, has started Cocheco Stage Company in Dover, New Hampshire, in what was the Edwin Booth Theater. Shows are already under way, and a full summer season is planned. Watch this space for more.
• Theater in crisis: You can help prevent the next casualty in Maine’s tough theater business from being the Oddfellow Theater in Buckfield. Visit www.oddfellow.com to keep this lively operation going, and get John Baldacci to help, too.
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