Published in the Current
In seven hours on Saturday, the town of Cape Elizabeth donated over $25,000 to help firefighters and rescue personnel in New York City.
Immediately upon hearing the news of Tuesday’s tragedies, the firefighters and rescue workers in Cape Elizabeth wanted to go to New York to help, said Fire Chief Philip McGouldrick.
“The frustration level was high,” he said. “They wanted to do something.”
McGouldrick checked with state emergency officials and learned that the rescue efforts had enough people. Cape’s crews are, he said, on a backup list if
they need more help down the road.
The department explored several options for fundraisers, but none of them seemed right. A bottle drive might have worked, if not for the recent Cape high school field hockey bottle effort.
Friday afternoon, McGouldrick said, Deputy Chief Peter Gleeson suggested a boot drive.
The department got approval from the town manager to do the drive, and on Saturday morning, members, the water extrication team and fire police fanned out across
town: by the town office building, at Fort Williams and near the town dump.
The major effort was in the parking lot next to the town building, McGouldrick said.
The idea was to have people pull off into the parking lot and give donations, he said. But traffic backed up, and firefighters headed out into the street with boots outstretched.
“The traffic got backed up a little but nobody seemed to mind,” McGouldrick said.
Donors, he said, were very generous.
“People would open their wallets and put all the money in,” he said. Donations included three $100 bills, and checks for $500, $300 and $100. Other donors
drove by again and again, dropping money in boots each time.
People responded well, McGouldrick said. “They were so happy that we were doing it.”
The effort was supported by several town children who set up their own fundraising sites and brought the money to the fire department, McGouldrick said.
The coins donated filled a five gallon bucket, he said.
“I’ve never seen so much change in my life,” McGouldrick said.
The coins have gone to be counted and are not included in the $25,000 total, McGouldrick said. The total includes only bills and checks.
The department is continuing to accept donations, but will not be soliciting on the town’s streets.
“The community gave and gave generously,” McGouldrick said.
Thursday, September 20, 2001
Monday, September 17, 2001
Phone service snafu pits ISPs against Verizon
Published in Interface Tech News
CONCORD, N.H. ‹ Phone customers in New Hampshire have had problems getting telephone dial tones since 1999, leading to dangerous situations when even 911 is unreachable in some towns. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has been discussing the situation for two years and, despite the filing in May of a Verizon New Hampshire proposal that could alleviate the problem, the commission has not yet determined a course of action.
"We're still analyzing the filing," said PUC chief engineer Kate Bailey, who predicted there could be a technical review session before the commission rules on the proposal, and offered no projected timetable for a ruling.
High telephone circuit use has clogged some Verizon New Hampshire central office switches, causing dial-tone delays for outbound callers, fast busy signals for inbound callers, and, in some cases, lack of any dial tone.
The N.H. PUC requires that a dial tone be available within three seconds after a customer picks up a phone. If too many other phones are in use on the same circuit, this standard cannot be met.
The congestion, which the PUC, Verizon, and the New Hampshire Internet Service Providers Association (NHISPA) attribute primarily to increasing use of dial-up Internet services, has only worsened in the past two years. Verizon New Hampshire has been installing equipment at affected switching offices throughout the state and has been experiencing a form of rolling blackouts in the phone system: as congestion is eased in one place, another location becomes overloaded.
One proposed solution is for New Hampshire ISPs to reduce their use of dial-in, or "switch-side" access to the Internet, and move instead to higher-bandwidth, dedicated-circuit systems like DSL, which are called "trunk-side" services.
The ISPs like the idea, saying they do not presently have access to trunk-side lines. "We don't have alternatives to the dial-up. They're not cost-effective for us," said Brian Susnock, president of the Nashua, N.H.-based Destek Group.
Destek has a federal suit pending against Verizon New Hampshire alleging the company engaged in improper procedures regarding exceptions to standard tariffs.
Susnock said there are, however, cheap workaround products available from Verizon New Hampshire, including alarm circuits intended to maintain constant contact between a burglar alarm system and a security company or police station.
Susnock said those circuits are not engineered for data transmission, and can have reliability problems when carrying data, but he uses them anyway because they are so much cheaper.
The PUC's solution is for Verizon to sell so-called "dry copper loops" to ISPs for data traffic. In response to a PUC request, on May 29 Verizon New Hampshire filed a so-called "illustrative tariff" to show the PUC and others what a tariff for dry copper might look like.
The proposal, still being examined by the PUC, has come under fire from the ISPs for charging excessive service fees, being inconsistent with Verizon Online's pricing practices, and for being exclusionary to ISPs.
The proposal would allow Verizon New Hampshire to charge ISPs between $200 and $2,200 in one-time fees to condition a copper loop for data transmission.
Verizon spokesman Erle Pierce said removal of these devices is time-consuming and expensive. "It's a lot of work to go out and unload those copper pairs," he said. Susnock said there is no need for Verizon workers to remove hardware from existing cables, and said there is a database which will tell engineers whether dry copper lines already exist in an area.
"Are there records which will tell you whether a cable pair is loaded or unloaded? Absolutely," Pierce said, but said they are only available for lines which already carry Verizon New Hampshire voice traffic, not for cables which currently carry no traffic. And the records are available only to what Pierce called "authorized CLECs." Pierce added, "Generally speaking, [the ISPs] want all the advantages of being a regulated company, without the regulation."
Chip Sullivan, a lawyer for Destek and for the NHISPA, said the ISPs are willing to pay for access to Verizon's engineering database, but balked at having to pay Verizon $5,000 per month in registration fees, just to be able to place orders for dry copper. On June 6, the NHPUC agreed and waived the monthly fee.
As for the alleged pricing discrepancy, Verizon Online offers DSL service in New Hampshire for $49.95 per month, less than the $64 proposed monthly cost of dry copper Verizon New Hampshire proposes. The dry copper service does not include actual Internet access, Web hosting space or e-mail, which are included in Verizon Online's fee. Pierce said the price difference is because Verizon Online buys "pre-qualified" copper, which does not need to be unloaded, and gets volume discounts.
The proposal would also prevent ISPs from buying dry copper in areas where Verizon and collocated CLECS are offering DSL service. If ISPs were operating in an area and a CLEC extended service to that area, the ISPs would be cut off. In the proposed tariff, Verizon's justification is that the ISPs have no regulation and therefore could use non-standard protocols over their wires which would cause interference with the regulated companies' services.
While the PUC has been investigating and discussing the matter and its related issues for over two years, Sullivan said much of the wait has been due to understaffing at the PUC. The deadlines for commission responses to Verizon filings, he said, are "faster than staffing allows." And even Verizon filed its illustrative tariff in 60 days, rather than the 30 days ordered by the PUC on March 29. The PUC's order promised a response from the staff within 30 days of the filing, which was on May 29.
Because there is no timetable for the next step of the evaluation process, New Hampshire telephone customers will have to hope they have a dial tone when they pick up the phone to call 911.
CONCORD, N.H. ‹ Phone customers in New Hampshire have had problems getting telephone dial tones since 1999, leading to dangerous situations when even 911 is unreachable in some towns. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has been discussing the situation for two years and, despite the filing in May of a Verizon New Hampshire proposal that could alleviate the problem, the commission has not yet determined a course of action.
"We're still analyzing the filing," said PUC chief engineer Kate Bailey, who predicted there could be a technical review session before the commission rules on the proposal, and offered no projected timetable for a ruling.
High telephone circuit use has clogged some Verizon New Hampshire central office switches, causing dial-tone delays for outbound callers, fast busy signals for inbound callers, and, in some cases, lack of any dial tone.
The N.H. PUC requires that a dial tone be available within three seconds after a customer picks up a phone. If too many other phones are in use on the same circuit, this standard cannot be met.
The congestion, which the PUC, Verizon, and the New Hampshire Internet Service Providers Association (NHISPA) attribute primarily to increasing use of dial-up Internet services, has only worsened in the past two years. Verizon New Hampshire has been installing equipment at affected switching offices throughout the state and has been experiencing a form of rolling blackouts in the phone system: as congestion is eased in one place, another location becomes overloaded.
One proposed solution is for New Hampshire ISPs to reduce their use of dial-in, or "switch-side" access to the Internet, and move instead to higher-bandwidth, dedicated-circuit systems like DSL, which are called "trunk-side" services.
The ISPs like the idea, saying they do not presently have access to trunk-side lines. "We don't have alternatives to the dial-up. They're not cost-effective for us," said Brian Susnock, president of the Nashua, N.H.-based Destek Group.
Destek has a federal suit pending against Verizon New Hampshire alleging the company engaged in improper procedures regarding exceptions to standard tariffs.
Susnock said there are, however, cheap workaround products available from Verizon New Hampshire, including alarm circuits intended to maintain constant contact between a burglar alarm system and a security company or police station.
Susnock said those circuits are not engineered for data transmission, and can have reliability problems when carrying data, but he uses them anyway because they are so much cheaper.
The PUC's solution is for Verizon to sell so-called "dry copper loops" to ISPs for data traffic. In response to a PUC request, on May 29 Verizon New Hampshire filed a so-called "illustrative tariff" to show the PUC and others what a tariff for dry copper might look like.
The proposal, still being examined by the PUC, has come under fire from the ISPs for charging excessive service fees, being inconsistent with Verizon Online's pricing practices, and for being exclusionary to ISPs.
The proposal would allow Verizon New Hampshire to charge ISPs between $200 and $2,200 in one-time fees to condition a copper loop for data transmission.
Verizon spokesman Erle Pierce said removal of these devices is time-consuming and expensive. "It's a lot of work to go out and unload those copper pairs," he said. Susnock said there is no need for Verizon workers to remove hardware from existing cables, and said there is a database which will tell engineers whether dry copper lines already exist in an area.
"Are there records which will tell you whether a cable pair is loaded or unloaded? Absolutely," Pierce said, but said they are only available for lines which already carry Verizon New Hampshire voice traffic, not for cables which currently carry no traffic. And the records are available only to what Pierce called "authorized CLECs." Pierce added, "Generally speaking, [the ISPs] want all the advantages of being a regulated company, without the regulation."
Chip Sullivan, a lawyer for Destek and for the NHISPA, said the ISPs are willing to pay for access to Verizon's engineering database, but balked at having to pay Verizon $5,000 per month in registration fees, just to be able to place orders for dry copper. On June 6, the NHPUC agreed and waived the monthly fee.
As for the alleged pricing discrepancy, Verizon Online offers DSL service in New Hampshire for $49.95 per month, less than the $64 proposed monthly cost of dry copper Verizon New Hampshire proposes. The dry copper service does not include actual Internet access, Web hosting space or e-mail, which are included in Verizon Online's fee. Pierce said the price difference is because Verizon Online buys "pre-qualified" copper, which does not need to be unloaded, and gets volume discounts.
The proposal would also prevent ISPs from buying dry copper in areas where Verizon and collocated CLECS are offering DSL service. If ISPs were operating in an area and a CLEC extended service to that area, the ISPs would be cut off. In the proposed tariff, Verizon's justification is that the ISPs have no regulation and therefore could use non-standard protocols over their wires which would cause interference with the regulated companies' services.
While the PUC has been investigating and discussing the matter and its related issues for over two years, Sullivan said much of the wait has been due to understaffing at the PUC. The deadlines for commission responses to Verizon filings, he said, are "faster than staffing allows." And even Verizon filed its illustrative tariff in 60 days, rather than the 30 days ordered by the PUC on March 29. The PUC's order promised a response from the staff within 30 days of the filing, which was on May 29.
Because there is no timetable for the next step of the evaluation process, New Hampshire telephone customers will have to hope they have a dial tone when they pick up the phone to call 911.
Friday, September 14, 2001
Xanoptix rolls out fast optical switch
Published in Interface Tech News
MERRIMACK, N.H. ‹ As part of its work in miniaturizing switching components, Xanoptix has unveiled a collaborative effort with Camarillo, Calif.-based Vitesse Semiconductor to introduce a small 100+ Gbps optical-in, optical-out switch.
Xanoptix, which has based its business on parallel optical interconnections for the telecom and datacom markets, is increasing the density of available components for switching circuit boards, according to Harald Hamster, the company's vice president of marketing and business development.
In the space taken up by a 12-fiber interconnect, Hamster said, the new device, combining Xanoptix's XTM-1 optical transceiver and Vitesse's VSC838 36x36 crosspoint switch, can fit a 72-fiber interconnect.
At present, Hamster said, the hardware can only handle multi-mode fiber traffic, but the company is looking beyond this current limitation.
"We will certainly expand our offerings into other wavelength regimes," Hamster said.
The new device is entering beta testing and is expected to be available in early 2002, Hamster said. The companies demonstrated the combination product at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference in Baltimore in early July.
Hamster called the demo a success, and said he got good response from potential buyers. "It shows we have a very real product and you can do real things," he said.
While the combination may work well, the marketing will still be carried out by both companies independently, Hamster said, though there may be some co-marketing.
The next step for Xanoptix is to carry the structure underlying the XTM-1 over to different optical wavelengths and longer-reaching systems.
Analyst Galen Schreck of Forrester Research is skeptical of the possibilities for Gigabit Ethernet. "We're still in the beginning phases," he said. "Once we get our protocols and applications lined up we'll be needing more high-bandwidth connections."
He expects the larger market to develop over the course of the next two to three years, though he is unsure whether Ethernet will maintain its dominance ‹ citing newcomers like InfiniBand, which will have some compliant components shipping in early 2002.
Schreck also said power and space constraints on switches aren't at a critical stage right now. "I don't see it being a widespread problem just yet," he said.
MERRIMACK, N.H. ‹ As part of its work in miniaturizing switching components, Xanoptix has unveiled a collaborative effort with Camarillo, Calif.-based Vitesse Semiconductor to introduce a small 100+ Gbps optical-in, optical-out switch.
Xanoptix, which has based its business on parallel optical interconnections for the telecom and datacom markets, is increasing the density of available components for switching circuit boards, according to Harald Hamster, the company's vice president of marketing and business development.
In the space taken up by a 12-fiber interconnect, Hamster said, the new device, combining Xanoptix's XTM-1 optical transceiver and Vitesse's VSC838 36x36 crosspoint switch, can fit a 72-fiber interconnect.
At present, Hamster said, the hardware can only handle multi-mode fiber traffic, but the company is looking beyond this current limitation.
"We will certainly expand our offerings into other wavelength regimes," Hamster said.
The new device is entering beta testing and is expected to be available in early 2002, Hamster said. The companies demonstrated the combination product at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference in Baltimore in early July.
Hamster called the demo a success, and said he got good response from potential buyers. "It shows we have a very real product and you can do real things," he said.
While the combination may work well, the marketing will still be carried out by both companies independently, Hamster said, though there may be some co-marketing.
The next step for Xanoptix is to carry the structure underlying the XTM-1 over to different optical wavelengths and longer-reaching systems.
Analyst Galen Schreck of Forrester Research is skeptical of the possibilities for Gigabit Ethernet. "We're still in the beginning phases," he said. "Once we get our protocols and applications lined up we'll be needing more high-bandwidth connections."
He expects the larger market to develop over the course of the next two to three years, though he is unsure whether Ethernet will maintain its dominance ‹ citing newcomers like InfiniBand, which will have some compliant components shipping in early 2002.
Schreck also said power and space constraints on switches aren't at a critical stage right now. "I don't see it being a widespread problem just yet," he said.
Thursday, September 13, 2001
Blasts shake community’s peace of mind
Published in the Current
Radios and televisions in Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth were tuned to the same stations Tuesday morning. Even Burger King employees had the news on, rather than the energetic music that gets them through their shifts.
Aside from that, there was an unearthly silence. After-school activities were cancelled, government buildings around the country were closed, and even the Maine Mall in South Portland shut its doors. But perhaps the strangest view in Maine was overhead.
“It’s weird seeing no planes,” said Kim Mathieu of Scarborough.
Before the planes were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration, two of the alleged terrorists flew on a U.S. Airways flight from Portland International Jetport to Boston, where
they boarded cross-country flights which were later hijacked, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Judy Hill of Maple Street in Scarborough works at the Oak Hill Dry Cleaners. One of her customers Tuesday dropped off his wife’s United Airlines flight attendant uniforms. She was safe
on the ground in Georgia. Everyone, who came in Hill said, was struck by
the tragedy.
“You just see their faces and the hurt,” Hill said.
She was stunned to hear the news just before 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.
“I just had to take a deep breath and say a prayer,” she said. “I don’t know how those people are really going to get over this. It’s horrible.”
She was impressed by the efforts of rescue personnel in New York, and said President Bush faces a big challenge.
“I think President Bush has got a hard evening ahead of him,” she said.
Mathieu, whose brother is in New York, was concerned about what Bush and other leaders might decide.
“I don’t want to see anything crazy happen,” she said.
Her husband Tony echoed her concern, adding that the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. could lead to further terrorism.
“It makes me wonder how many people this is going to set off,” he said.
One person set off by the tragedy was Tim, who wore a Scarborough School Department uniform shirt but would not give his last name.
“We’ve been fighting these son-of-a-guns for years,” he said, insisting that the terrorism was the work of international agents bent on taking away Americans’ privately owned weapons.
“The United Nations is responsible for this whole thing,” he said.
Esther MacDuffie of Berry Road in Scarborough was more reserved.
“It’s very difficult to get an opinion because it’s so horrifying,” she said. Her son lives in New York and she hadn’t heard from him yet, because the phone lines were jammed.
She was concerned about security procedures, especially at airports.
“I feel as if somebody somewhere slipped up,” MacDuffie said.
A woman who asked to be identified only as Pamela was concerned less about what had happened than with what would.
“I’ll be interested to know what they do about it,” she said. “It’s a very very very bad day. Nothing
feels the same.”
The initial reaction was for people to check in with loved ones, even if there was no chance
they had been in danger.
“I’ve gotten like 400 calls from my mom,” Pamela said. She works in Scarborough and her mother lives in Windham.
Beyond news of the events themselves, the television news footage was stunning and disturbing
to people.
“I haven’t seen it yet, and I’m not sure I want to,” Pamela said.
Hill had seen the pictures in the morning before coming to work, but said she was near tears all
day.
“I couldn’t watch it again tonight,” she said.
Tuesday night Cornerstone Baptist Church in Scarborough held a prayer service in the aftermath
of the tragedy. About 100 people attended, according to church officials, who noted the
church will be holding evening services Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, beginning with
a prayer session at 6:30 p.m. and a service starting at 7 p.m.
A blood drive was held Wednesday at the Maine Blood Center on Professional Drive in
Scarborough. At press time, 325 people had turned out to donate blood, according to Diane
Richard at the blood center.
Food had been donated by several local residents and businesses, she said.
Radios and televisions in Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth were tuned to the same stations Tuesday morning. Even Burger King employees had the news on, rather than the energetic music that gets them through their shifts.
Aside from that, there was an unearthly silence. After-school activities were cancelled, government buildings around the country were closed, and even the Maine Mall in South Portland shut its doors. But perhaps the strangest view in Maine was overhead.
“It’s weird seeing no planes,” said Kim Mathieu of Scarborough.
Before the planes were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration, two of the alleged terrorists flew on a U.S. Airways flight from Portland International Jetport to Boston, where
they boarded cross-country flights which were later hijacked, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Judy Hill of Maple Street in Scarborough works at the Oak Hill Dry Cleaners. One of her customers Tuesday dropped off his wife’s United Airlines flight attendant uniforms. She was safe
on the ground in Georgia. Everyone, who came in Hill said, was struck by
the tragedy.
“You just see their faces and the hurt,” Hill said.
She was stunned to hear the news just before 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.
“I just had to take a deep breath and say a prayer,” she said. “I don’t know how those people are really going to get over this. It’s horrible.”
She was impressed by the efforts of rescue personnel in New York, and said President Bush faces a big challenge.
“I think President Bush has got a hard evening ahead of him,” she said.
Mathieu, whose brother is in New York, was concerned about what Bush and other leaders might decide.
“I don’t want to see anything crazy happen,” she said.
Her husband Tony echoed her concern, adding that the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. could lead to further terrorism.
“It makes me wonder how many people this is going to set off,” he said.
One person set off by the tragedy was Tim, who wore a Scarborough School Department uniform shirt but would not give his last name.
“We’ve been fighting these son-of-a-guns for years,” he said, insisting that the terrorism was the work of international agents bent on taking away Americans’ privately owned weapons.
“The United Nations is responsible for this whole thing,” he said.
Esther MacDuffie of Berry Road in Scarborough was more reserved.
“It’s very difficult to get an opinion because it’s so horrifying,” she said. Her son lives in New York and she hadn’t heard from him yet, because the phone lines were jammed.
She was concerned about security procedures, especially at airports.
“I feel as if somebody somewhere slipped up,” MacDuffie said.
A woman who asked to be identified only as Pamela was concerned less about what had happened than with what would.
“I’ll be interested to know what they do about it,” she said. “It’s a very very very bad day. Nothing
feels the same.”
The initial reaction was for people to check in with loved ones, even if there was no chance
they had been in danger.
“I’ve gotten like 400 calls from my mom,” Pamela said. She works in Scarborough and her mother lives in Windham.
Beyond news of the events themselves, the television news footage was stunning and disturbing
to people.
“I haven’t seen it yet, and I’m not sure I want to,” Pamela said.
Hill had seen the pictures in the morning before coming to work, but said she was near tears all
day.
“I couldn’t watch it again tonight,” she said.
Tuesday night Cornerstone Baptist Church in Scarborough held a prayer service in the aftermath
of the tragedy. About 100 people attended, according to church officials, who noted the
church will be holding evening services Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, beginning with
a prayer session at 6:30 p.m. and a service starting at 7 p.m.
A blood drive was held Wednesday at the Maine Blood Center on Professional Drive in
Scarborough. At press time, 325 people had turned out to donate blood, according to Diane
Richard at the blood center.
Food had been donated by several local residents and businesses, she said.
Scarborough invites YMCA to consider building pool
Published in the Current
The town of Scarborough is talking to the YMCA about the possibility of building a pool next to the proposed community center on the old drive-in property near town hall.
Town Manager Ron Owens confirmed that he is meeting this week with the Portland-based Cumberland County YMCA.
Owens said there is demand for a pool, from both members of the community and the schools, but the Town Council decided not to include it in the tax-payer funded proposal for the drive-in property.
That $5.7 million proposal includes a teen center, senior center and gym and is going before voters on the Nov. 6 ballot.
“We felt that was too much to ask of the taxpayer,” to also fund a pool, Owens said. Instead, he is looking for a partnership with another agency to bring a pool to Scarborough.
“That’s where a Y would be instrumental,” Owens said.
The YMCA is not the only possibility, Owens said, mentioning the Boys and Girls Clubs as a possible alternative, but said the Y is the organization being talked about the most.
“That’s the first agency that we’ve approached,” Owens said.
Owens said a pool plan could involve the Town Council offering the Y land adjacent to the
proposed town center building.
There is space remaining that could fit a 50-meter pool, he said.
“For that to occur, we need some other agency to work with,” Owens said.
In return for the land, Owens said, the town would require the partner agency to allow some
level of access to the pool by town residents.
He hesitated to go into further specifics, saying talks are only just beginning between the Y and the town.
Scarborough resident Stephen Ives, executive director of the Northern York County YMCA in
Biddeford, said the town’s current plan for a community center leaves room for improvement.
“It’s a minimal facility. It’s a teen center, senior center and a gym,” Ives said. He said the Y could add a swimming pool and other services Ys traditionally offer, including childcare, afterschool
programs, sports, and recreation and fitness equipment.
The specifics of a Y in Scarborough would depend on the results of a study to determine the
town’s needs.
“A Y is supposed to be a response to the needs of its community,” Ives said.
One of the people working with Ives is fellow Scarborough resident, Gary O’Donnell.
“We’re still very much in the beginning stages,” O’Donnell said.
He is putting together a group of local residents to gauge community demand for services a Y could offer, and to evaluate the fundraising support the effort could garner.
O’Donnell is looking for people with energy and time to devote to the project, who reflect the diversity of town residents.
“Scarborough is a very diverse community of interests and needs,” O’Donnell said.
He has an idea of who might be a good person to join. “Someone who is passionate and retired
would be great,” O’Donnell said.
He also is concerned about how much building maintenance could cost taxpayers. A non-profit
agency, he said, would have to fund ongoing costs from donations, rather than taxes.
“There’s a wonderful opportunity to look for charitable and town partnerships,” O’Donnell said.
Ives said a Y in Scarborough would likely be a branch of the Cumberland County YMCA, which operates a swimming pool as part of its facility in Portland.
Sharing a recreation facility between the YMCA and the town of Scarborough is not without
precedent elsewhere in the country, Ives said, though it isn’t a common relationship for a municipality to enter into.
“Ys partner with everybody,” Ives said. “Ys are very attuned to collaboration.”
The national YMCA organization will get involved, through the local Y, to help O’Donnell and others study how well Scarborough could support a Y, and whether a Y would meet Scarborough’s needs. The study could take six months to a year, Ives said.
Without a solid base of willing participants and interested people, the Y won’t come.
“It really depends on the volunteers and the support from the community,” Ives said.
Scarborough residents will see a referendum for the community center on November’s ballot, but it will not include any reference to the proposed Y, Owens said.
The referendum will discuss the cost of preparing the site, building the community center, parking, a pond, picnic space and ball fields.
Any future referendum for the pool would depend on the level of the town’s involvement in the project, Owens said.
A referendum is not necessary for the Town Council to allow the Y or another organization to build on the drive-in property, Owens said.
In the end, he said, both the Cumberland County YMCA board and the Scarborough Town
Council will have to approve beginning negotiations between the two groups, as well as any
agreements reached.
The town of Scarborough is talking to the YMCA about the possibility of building a pool next to the proposed community center on the old drive-in property near town hall.
Town Manager Ron Owens confirmed that he is meeting this week with the Portland-based Cumberland County YMCA.
Owens said there is demand for a pool, from both members of the community and the schools, but the Town Council decided not to include it in the tax-payer funded proposal for the drive-in property.
That $5.7 million proposal includes a teen center, senior center and gym and is going before voters on the Nov. 6 ballot.
“We felt that was too much to ask of the taxpayer,” to also fund a pool, Owens said. Instead, he is looking for a partnership with another agency to bring a pool to Scarborough.
“That’s where a Y would be instrumental,” Owens said.
The YMCA is not the only possibility, Owens said, mentioning the Boys and Girls Clubs as a possible alternative, but said the Y is the organization being talked about the most.
“That’s the first agency that we’ve approached,” Owens said.
Owens said a pool plan could involve the Town Council offering the Y land adjacent to the
proposed town center building.
There is space remaining that could fit a 50-meter pool, he said.
“For that to occur, we need some other agency to work with,” Owens said.
In return for the land, Owens said, the town would require the partner agency to allow some
level of access to the pool by town residents.
He hesitated to go into further specifics, saying talks are only just beginning between the Y and the town.
Scarborough resident Stephen Ives, executive director of the Northern York County YMCA in
Biddeford, said the town’s current plan for a community center leaves room for improvement.
“It’s a minimal facility. It’s a teen center, senior center and a gym,” Ives said. He said the Y could add a swimming pool and other services Ys traditionally offer, including childcare, afterschool
programs, sports, and recreation and fitness equipment.
The specifics of a Y in Scarborough would depend on the results of a study to determine the
town’s needs.
“A Y is supposed to be a response to the needs of its community,” Ives said.
One of the people working with Ives is fellow Scarborough resident, Gary O’Donnell.
“We’re still very much in the beginning stages,” O’Donnell said.
He is putting together a group of local residents to gauge community demand for services a Y could offer, and to evaluate the fundraising support the effort could garner.
O’Donnell is looking for people with energy and time to devote to the project, who reflect the diversity of town residents.
“Scarborough is a very diverse community of interests and needs,” O’Donnell said.
He has an idea of who might be a good person to join. “Someone who is passionate and retired
would be great,” O’Donnell said.
He also is concerned about how much building maintenance could cost taxpayers. A non-profit
agency, he said, would have to fund ongoing costs from donations, rather than taxes.
“There’s a wonderful opportunity to look for charitable and town partnerships,” O’Donnell said.
Ives said a Y in Scarborough would likely be a branch of the Cumberland County YMCA, which operates a swimming pool as part of its facility in Portland.
Sharing a recreation facility between the YMCA and the town of Scarborough is not without
precedent elsewhere in the country, Ives said, though it isn’t a common relationship for a municipality to enter into.
“Ys partner with everybody,” Ives said. “Ys are very attuned to collaboration.”
The national YMCA organization will get involved, through the local Y, to help O’Donnell and others study how well Scarborough could support a Y, and whether a Y would meet Scarborough’s needs. The study could take six months to a year, Ives said.
Without a solid base of willing participants and interested people, the Y won’t come.
“It really depends on the volunteers and the support from the community,” Ives said.
Scarborough residents will see a referendum for the community center on November’s ballot, but it will not include any reference to the proposed Y, Owens said.
The referendum will discuss the cost of preparing the site, building the community center, parking, a pond, picnic space and ball fields.
Any future referendum for the pool would depend on the level of the town’s involvement in the project, Owens said.
A referendum is not necessary for the Town Council to allow the Y or another organization to build on the drive-in property, Owens said.
In the end, he said, both the Cumberland County YMCA board and the Scarborough Town
Council will have to approve beginning negotiations between the two groups, as well as any
agreements reached.
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