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.