There is an empty spot in Biddeford’s downtown and mill district now that the Maine Energy Recovery Company waste-to-energy incinerator has been demolished.
In November 2012, the city purchased the incinerator that many blamed for the stagnation of the city’s downtown with the intent to close it and tear it down. Although there is still some environmental cleanup necessary at the site, city officials have already had meetings with investors interested in developing the location. Also, as part of the deal to purchase Maine Energy, the city instituted the first curbside pick-up recycling program in Biddeford.
In recent years, a number of people have touted that the renaissance of Biddeford’s downtown as imminent. While there is still a way to go, several new businesses have moved to Biddeford’s mill district and downtown this year. Some of these include the Banded Horn Brewery, the clothing store Suger and Cobblestone sandwich shop. In addition, thanks to the Main Street Challenge, an small business incentive program sponsored by the city and the downtown revitalization Heart of Biddeford, several other businesses opened. The vegetarian restaurant Dahlia’s Delights and the wood working business Tote Road opened last year. Earlier this year, Elements: Books Coffee Beer opened its doors. Several more new businesses are also on the horizon when the winners of Main Street Challenge 2 are picked next year.
On Aug. 18, a New England supermarket chain opened the first Maine Market Basket grocery store in Biddeford. The store brought with it hundreds of jobs and filled the space left empty at The Shops at Biddeford Crossing on Route 111 when the Lowe’s home improvement store closed its doors in 2011 and let go approximately 100 employees.
After the failure of a last-ditch effort to raise money to keep the afterschool program going, Joyful Harvest Neighborhood Center closed in December. This will leave a hole for those who depend on the downtown center as a safe place to send their children to play, create art projects or do homework. However, some concerned citizens are working to try to fill that void and hopefully in the new year there will be an alternative for the city’s youth to keep them safe and off the streets.
There were also tragedies in Biddeford this year. Charles Raybine, 47, of Biddeford, was shot and killed on March 26. According to witness statements filed with the court, prior to the shooting he had been playing cards at a relative’s home at the Parish Place apartment building. He was shot in his car in the apartment house parking lot. Bub Peter Nguany of Old Orchard Beach is charged with the murder.
Raybine’s death was only a few months after that of two alleged murders that occurred last year on Dec. 29. In February, James Earl Pak was indicted with the murders of Derrick Thompson and Alivia Welch, who were staying in the apartment attached to the garage of his Sokokis Street home. According to witness statements, the shootings came after a dispute about parking and snow shoveling.
Twenty-seven-year-old Tyler Trottier of Biddeford committed suicide, said Biddeford Police Chief Roger Beaupre, after his King Street home was surrounded when police narrowed in on him as the suspect in a string robberies that occurred at the end of November and earlier this month.
Beaupre said Trottier committed 10 robberies, seven in Biddeford, two in Saco and one in Arundel. The first occurred on Thanksgiving Day and the last was the following week, on Dec. 5, the same day Trottier shot himself.
Three years ago, Rory Holland was convicted with two murders, those of Biddeford brothers Derek and Gage Greene, who he shot in front of his South Street home on June 30, 2009. The Williams Court Park was erected near Holland’s home. Earlier this year, the city took possession of Holland’s home through eminent domain and demolished it in April. The plan is to make the property part of the park.
DAYTON/LYMAN
Dayton residents voted in November to withdraw from Regional School Unit 23. In December, residents voted in a three-member school board for the new municipal school unit. The new school unit will begin operating on July 1. The board will be creating a budget in the interim.
Leila Roy was hired in August as the librarian for the Lyman Community Library. Roy brings much experience in the field, and runs the library with the help of a part-time assistant and many volunteers. Since coming on board, she has added a crafts table, created new programs and a website, updated the catalogue, and rearranged layout of the facility.
KENNEBUNK/KENNEBUNKPORT/ARUNDEL
In a saga that grabbed national headlines, a Wells woman and Thomaston man were found to have operated an illegal prostitution business using the former Pura Vida Studio in Kennebunk as cover, all while keeping detailed video archives of sexual encounters with clients, recorded without their knowledge or consent.
In June, Alexis Wright was sentenced to 10 months at the York County Jail and ordered to pay $60,000 in fines and restitution to the state for tax evasion and fraud. Earlier in the year, in March, her business partner, Mark Strong, was sentenced to 20 days in jail on several counts of promotion of prostitution and one count of conspiracy to promote prostitution. The jury determined that Strong, who was the financial backer for Wright when setting up the Zumba fitness studio, helped to run the business end of the prostitution operation, in many cases watching Wright perform sexual acts live on his computer in Thomaston via video conferencing software.
This autumn, officials from Regional School Unit 21 ”“ encompassing Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel ”“ proposed $75 million in renovations to three area schools, launching a campaign aimed at convincing residents the added educational benefits would be worth the tax increase. The final vote will take place in January.
The proposed plan calls for major updates to Mildred L. Day School in Arundel, Kennebunk High School and Kennebunkport Consolidated School.
The biggest building deficiencies are at the high school, which represents about $53 million of the total cost.
The plan, as it currently stands, would fully renovate the high school, creating classrooms of a more appropriate size for the student population ”“ just shy of 700 ”“ an updated and more publicly accessible library that could double as public meeting space, a spacious cafeteria, and safer indoor and outdoor athletic facilities outfitted with artificial turf, which district Superintendent Andrew Dolloff said last month would represent a long-term savings in field maintenance costs.
OLD ORCHARD BEACH
In August, Michael Swenson was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the murder of Old Orchard Beach resident Roger White. White’s body was found underneath a mattress in an empty lot in downtown Old Orchard Beach in April 2012. The lot was near The Whaler pub, where White and Swenson had been playing pool the night before. White had multiple stab wounds, and according to the state medical examiner, died from a stab wound to his chest.
In February, the town council voted to rescind the town manager’s decision to not renew Public Works Director Bill Robertson’s contract. Then-town manager Mark Pearson had decided to put Robertson on administrative leave and did not renew his contract in April. The town council voted to overturn Pearson’s decision, and Robertson has remained in the position.
The town council voted on March 5 to terminate Pearson’s job with the town, effective April 3.
Politics and relations in town became heated, resulting in two separate recall movements. One group petitioned to recall town Councilors Sharri MacDonald, Laura Bolduc, Linda Mailhot and Dana Furtado, while another group petitioned to recall Councilors Bob Quinn, Michael Coleman and Robin Dayton.
Residents voted, on June 11, to recall six of the seven seated town councilors. The only remaining town councilor was Bob Quinn. Six new members were seated that month.
Residents also voted in November to amend the charter to change the number of town councilors from seven to five. The five-member council will go into effect after the November 2014 election. The November decision reverses a vote in 2011, in which residents voted to change the number of councilors from five to seven. The question passed by a difference of 11 votes.
Former Kennebunkport Town Manager Larry Mead took on the position of town manager for Old Orchard Beach on Sept. 16, with an annual salary of $105,000. Mead, who lives in town, said in August that he wants to make Old Orchard Beach the best community it can be.
In October, the town council voted to allow Kate’s Homemade Butter to operate in town until Feb. 1, with the caveat that it would give up the variance that allows it to do business on May 1, when the business license expires. The town had previously ordered the business to leave by Sept. 1, but owner Daniel Patry said its new location in Arundel would not be ready in time. The business has operated for more than 30 years in a residential neighborhood at 3 Arbutus Ave. The business has grown exponentially since its inception, and there have been complaints in recent years from neighbors regarding truck traffic and other issues.
SACO
In June, residents voted down a plan for a $1.7 million restoration of the Stackpole Bridge. The stone arch bridge, built in 1848, is located on Simpson Road. The bridge is currently closed, and an engineering firm recommended keeping the bridge closed until it is rehabilitated or replaced. The failed proposal would have stabilized and restored the lower masonry of the bridge, while removing the upper portions of fill and top stone, and replacing it with a concrete roadway with supportive piles.
A Massachusetts woman was arrested in July after she rammed three Saco Police cruisers. Monique Vallee, 43, of Andover, Mass., was charged with four counts of aggravated reckless conduct, three counts of assault on an officer and three counts of aggravated criminal mischief. The three cruisers were destroyed in the incident. The city’s insurance company gave it the book value of the three cars, or $29,000, which was enough to purchase and outfit one new cruiser.
In November, residents voted to withdraw from Regional School Unit 23. Earlier this month, a new, seven-member school board was elected and began work to prepare for the new Saco Municipal School Administrative Unit, which goes into effect July 1, 2014.
Long-time politician Mark Johnston stepped down from his position of mayor, saying that he wanted to spend more time focusing on his downtown store. Former State Rep. Don Pilon was inaugurated as the new mayor in early December.
In September, the Saco Drive-In won digital projection equipment through a nation-wide contest sponsored by Honda Motor Company. With the film industry requiring a conversion to digital projection, the drive-in would have been forced to close if it didn’t acquire the $75,000 worth of equipment. The Route 1 theater has been open since 1939 and is the second-oldest operating drive-in in the country.
Saco Police Department began, in the spring, increasing its police presence at Cascade Falls after complaints of suspicious and illegal behavior in the city-owned park off Cascade Road. Police believe the increased patrol has put a halt to the indecent behavior in the area, and the last arrest in the park for such activity was in August.
The Rotary Club of Saco Bay plans to restore a trail that leads to the base of the waterfall, and the city is pursuing a grant to make further improvements on the trail system.
SANFORD
Voters went to the polls with three choices for the city’s first popularly elected mayor Nov. 5 ”“ and most of them chose Tom Cote. The political newcomer swept all seven wards, taking home 2,614 votes, leaving opponents Brad Littlefield and Richard Stanley trailing far behind.
Stanley earned 779 votes, while Littlefield, who is wrapping up his third term as city councilor, came in last with 442 votes. Cote, who served on the city’s first budget committee, said Sanford needs to “peel back the onion,” and examine avenues to deal with shrinking revenues. He will be sworn in Jan. 7 at the first city council meeting of the new year.
Cote replaces interim Mayor Maura Herlihy, who was chosen by her council peers as the city’s first mayor under a new charter adopted by voters in November 2012. Herlihy had originally planned to run for the spot in the November election, but citing family and business commitments, ultimately decided against doing so.
In health-related news, 2013 was the year Goodall Hospital in Sanford and Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford began advising residents, through a series of forums and interviews with area news outlets, that the two facilities would merge to become Southern Maine Health Care Jan. 1, 2014. SMHC will be the fifth-largest health care system in Maine. Both Biddeford Medical Center and Sanford Medical Center, the new names for the two campuses, will maintain full-service emergency departments. Some services in Sanford, like access to specialist care and mental health services, will be enhanced, but all births will take place in Biddeford and surgery in Sanford will be conducted from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Residents who went to the polls in June to decide among two trash disposal systems chose pay as you throw, rather than a program called More-In-Return. While some residents expressed dismay they weren’t offered a “neither” option, voters ultimately chose pay as you throw. The system ramped up in mid-September, and through Dec. 15, Waste Zero, the trash bag contractor, said the city has reduced its solid waste by 41 percent and saved about $39,900 in disposal fees.
In September, Sanford celebrated the conversion of a vacant former textile mill into apartments and commercial space. The first of the city’s vast millyard to be revitalized, and city officials hope it will become a trend. The old mill has been transformed into 36 unique apartments with several commercial spaces on the ground floor. The conversion was accomplished with funds from several sources, including $3.7 million in neighborhood stabilization funds through the federal housing and urban development department, state and federal historic tax credits, brownfields funds through Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission, commercial lending and developer equity.
An imminent road paving project in Springvale was the catalyst for village business owners and individuals to get together to finance a “sprucing up” of the village’s Main Street this summer. That money and awards from a beautification trust and from the city contributed to the effort. As a result, Victorian-era type streetlights were installed. While that was going on, the city installed handicapped-accessible sidewalks and more. As well, the George E. Poirier Council 2755 Knights of Columbus and its subsidiary, the Springvale Social Club, adopted a plan to acquire and tidy up a neglected, pocket-sized park next to the social club. As well, an old, chain-link fence on Bridge Street, adjacent to the club, was replaced with a more attractive, decorative fencing system.
WELLS
This fall, after years of discussion, the dredge of Wells Harbor began. The total cost will be more than $3 million, with the federal government picking up most of the tab.
The project will consist of maintenance dredging of the 8-foot entrance channel, 6-foot inner harbor channel, 6-foot anchorage and the approximately 8-foot-deep settling basin, which is between the jetties, according to the federal government website fbo.gov. Also to be dredged are two mooring basins by the Town of Wells. The work consists of dredging about 130,000 cubic yards of sandy sediment from the federal project and about 20,000 cubic yards of sandy sediment from the town project. The dredged sand will be used to renourish local beaches.
In November, voters in Wells and Ogunquit gave the green light to renovate Wells High School. They approved a $26.85 million bond that is intended to fix inadequacies in the current building such as overcrowded classrooms, outdated science labs, unreliable Internet service as well air quality and heating system problems.
Also, it’s hoped when the renovations, to begin next year, are completed, the school’s warning status from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges will no longer be in effect.
YORK COUNTY GOVERNMENT
York County government ended 2013 with a big boost in its credit rating, as determined by Standard & Poors. It rated the county AA, up from A in 2011 and from A- back in 2007. County Manager Greg Zinser says the next goal is a AAA rating.
The year started off with the selection by York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette of a new chief deputy ”“ Bill King ”“ in January. Ouellette’s longtime second in command, Mat Baker died in the fall of 2012. King had been a major at the department and is known for his work on lottery scams originating in Jamaica that prey on the elderly. Earlier this year, he testified before a U.S. Senate committee on the subject.
King is expected to formally announce his candidacy for York County sheriff sometime in January and is among three Democrats vying for nomination by his party in the June primary. Paul Main, who ran four years ago, and South Berwick Police Chief Dana Lajoie are also vying for the Democratic nod. No Republicans have registered their intentions with the Maine Ethics Commission.
In July, the on-going acrimony between York County Commissioners and the York County Budget Committee racheted up another level when the commissioners voted 4-1, with Michael Cote dissenting, to censure the budget panel because members didn’t sign an ethics policy adopted by the commissioners. The budget panel adopted an ethics policy of its own, which said, among other points, that they’re a creation of the Legislature and that commissioners have overstepped their authority. The budget panel has filed a civil complaint against the commissioners. Oral arguments in the case are expected to be heard in the new year.
In June, Regional School Unit 57 School Resource Officer Jason Solomon, a York County Sheriff’s Office deputy, was named School Resource Officer of the Year by the 1,100-member National Association of School Resource Officers. Solomon, a 12-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, and a husband and father of four, has been the school resource officer since 2010.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
