2008-07-07T00:41:43Zhttp://blog.southportlandsentry.com/atom.aspxQuick Blogtag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:6f68c16f-ddab-4ccc-8b0a-ef5e8ace7dd2Sentry Editor2008-07-02T10:21:06Z2008-07-02T10:20:00ZStaff Writer
Last week’s invalid South Portland City Council vote to change the hours dogs are allowed on Willard Beach didn’t affect the schedule of the newly formed Willard Beach Task Force – a nine member committee consisting of residents, medical specialists and city officials formed to address the issue. It met for the first time on June 26.
“I don’t know how long this warrants or will take, but keep your eye on the prize,” South Portland Assistnat City Manager and Task Force Facilitator Erik Carson encouraged task force members. “You, as a member of this committee, are part of the problem, and part of the solution.”
The task force wasted no time coming up with a large number of topics to discuss, including the possible health, safety and liability risks, noise control concerns, public access, citizen rights and the economic and environmental impact the task force’s suggestions could have on the city.
“When we solve these, we’ll have fixed the world,” City Councilor Claude Morgan said.
As it currently stands, dog owners are allowed to walk their dogs on Willard Beach between the hours of 6 and 9 a.m. City Councilor Maxine Beecher spearheaded a council vote that changed the hours to 6 to 9 p.m., but the vote was later found to be invalid by a member of the South Portland Dog Owners Group who reminded city officials they needed a two-thirds majority vote to add the item to their June 16 agenda. Since it was added with a 4 to 3 vote, the ruling changing the hours was revoked and Beecher tabled the item to allow the task force time to come up with a strategy.
The task force agreed that whatever their final suggestion is, it should be easily enforceable. Several members said they believe inadequate enforcement of the current ordinance is largely the cause of conflict on the beach. Task force members Bill Arnold – who was appointed to the task force by Councilors Morgan and James Hughes last week – and Devon Gray said they believe dogs are already required to be leashed on the beach, as it meets the standards of a “public way,” included in the city’s leash laws.
“All that needs to be done is the law needs to be enforced, and it takes more than one officer to do it,” Gray said. “Something needs to be done now. The history of this problem is absurd.”
Other members said the current ordinance is unclear, and Morgan suggested hiring an attorney to determine if Willard Beach is an area where dogs need to be leashed.
“We need to come to a consensus about what the ordinance means,” task force member Bob Johnson said.
While they struggled to determine the scope of the current ordinance, the task force was undivided in agreeing the current enforcement is inadequate.
“The fact is, we have less city staff than we did eight years ago, and one more police officer,” Carson said. “Do we want to change the way it’s being enforced?”
Gray said she remembered a time when Willard Beach was patrolled by park rangers, suggesting that option for more effective enforcement of whatever decision the task force comes to.
The task force agreed to meet every Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. until they form a suggestion for the city council, an agenda Morgan said could be too aggressive.
“I understand there’s a different sense of urgency here,” he said. “But I don’t want to move too quickly. Haste makes waste.”
The task force agreed to elect Carson as their official spokesperson with their first vote, 7 to 1 with Rita Nappi in the minority. Doug Howell was absent for the vote.
“I’m designed to not have a position,” Carson said. “I will try to provide whatever point the task force is at as accurate and objectively as humanly possible.”
There will be a five minute window for public input toward the end of the agenda at all future meetings, Carson said.

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Last week’s invalid South Portland City Council vote to change the hours dogs are allowed on Willard Beach didn’t affect the schedule of the newly formed Willard Beach Task Force – a nine member committee consisting of residents, medical specialists and city officials formed to address the issue. It met for the first time on June 26.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:4bbe56e4-715d-45a1-8832-bc0bed50c995Sentry Editor2008-07-02T10:20:04Z2008-07-02T10:19:00ZStaff Writer
In a 5 to 2 vote on June 26, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council approved sending a $19.9 million school budget – an increase of 6 percent from last year’s budget – to a public hearing scheduled for July 14. Councilors James Rowe and Paul McKenny were in the minority.
“I think it’s too high,” said Rowe, who had suggested a 5.3 percent increase as a compromise.
The 6 percent increase, prepared by Superintendent Allan Hawkins, allocates nearly $621,000 for salaries and benefits of current school employees, approximately $33,000 for classroom furniture, nearly $9,000 for classroom equipment and an athletic budget of more than $24,000.
Councilor Sarah Lennon, who has supported a minimum 6 percent increase from the beginning of the budget season, says the funds are desperately needed to get Cape Elizabeth schools “back on an even keel” after years of being under funded.
“There are textbooks more than 10 years old,” she said. “[Increased school funding] is what a majority of residents have wanted for years.”
Town Manager Michael McGovern said combined with the approved $8.8 million municipal budget, the proposed budget would raise property taxes by roughly 6.6 percent, an increase of $1.08 per $1,000 of assessed value. Lennon said she was aware this year’s increase was larger than normal –at that rate of increase the tax rate would double in 10 years.
“Nobody wants higher taxes, but this is a catch-up year. I’m proud of my town for knowing that,” she said.
If approved by the council a second time, the second school budget validation referendum could be scheduled for July 22, which, per the new school consolidation laws, would be within 14 calendar days of the council’s final approval.
“I would take it to the bank that we will send a 6 percent budget to the referendum,” Council Chairman Mary Ann Lynch said.
On June 10 nearly 1,900 residents voted against a 4.6 percent school budget increase and – according to results collected from a second advisory question asking voters if they thought the budget was too high or too low ­– more than 1,600 voters were in favor of increasing school funding by more than the 4.6 percent.
Lynch said although she voted to send the 6 percent budget to voters, she will be casting a “no, too high” vote on the day of the referendum.
“The message in June was ‘We want to vote on the 6 percent budget,’” she said. “In the name of democracy, I’m willing to give the people that.”

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In a 5 to 2 vote on June 26, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council approved sending a $19.9 million school budget – an increase of 6 percent from last year’s budget – to a public hearing scheduled for July 14. Councilors James Rowe and Paul McKenny were in the minority.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:7b07470a-460f-4933-8414-a330d8edf1abSentry Editor2008-07-02T10:18:59Z2008-07-02T10:17:00ZStaff Writer
“It’s the hard-knock life for us!” 11 girls sang as they pretended to scrub the floors on their hands and knees during Dynamic Production’s rehearsal for the upcoming performance of “Annie.”
Dynamic Productions, founded by Cheryl Greeley, Nathan Schuster and Jeff Poulin, provides a community theater opportunity for local actors. They opened for business June 1 and rehearsals are underway for their first production. The three Scarborough residents are currently operating the theater company out of their homes and using Greeley’s studio for rehearsals.
 “There is not a lot of opportunity for kids to go out and be in plays unless they want to spend $300 to $500 to be in a camp performance,” Greeley said.
Greeley, Schuster and Poulin joined together to develop the company based on their passion for theater. Greeley and Schuster are the theater group’s professional directors. Greeley has owned Cheryl Greeley Theatra-Dance on Broadway in South Portland for 21 years, teaching dance and musical theater. Schuster graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in theater arts. Poulin will begin college this fall, majoring in entertainment business at Oklahoma City University.
Dynamic Productions is free to those in the community wishing to act, and the company’s goal is to provide a learning experience for their actors.
“It redefines community theater by giving youth and local actors a chance to connect with professionals, like Nathan and Cheryl, or others from New York, Vegas and Michigan,” Poulin said.
 “I want to instill passion for performing. Kids and adults naturally love acting, but don’t know why. This will instill a pride in building a show, your own production and is a chance to bring community theater to a more artistic level,” Schuster said.
Poulin, a recent  Scarborough High School graduate, said he hopes to see Dynamic Productions become a vital part of the local performing arts scene.
“Dynamic Productions should be that company that everyone goes to for training, acting and defining community theater,” Poulin said.
Greeley said some 170 kids turned out to audition for roles as Annie and her fellow orphans. Of the 170, only 20 were chosen for the performance, Poulin said.
“‘Annie’ is a familiar musical. We are trying to dust it off. If you come at a production with an exciting view, you will get a great performance,” Schuster said.
This production of “Annie” has turned community theater into a family affair, Greeley said.
Greeley will play Miss Hannigan, her daughter Rachel Greeley will play Lily St. Regis and son-in-law Schuster will play Rooster Hannigan. She said Rachel Friedman, 11, of Portland, will play Annie and her father, Greg Friedman, was cast opposite her as Daddy Warbucks.
Greg Friedman has no previous acting experience, but he decided to audition for the production during time off recovering from a broken leg. He said his busy schedule as a pilot would not generally allow him the time to participate in a performance.
“At first I thought it would be tough or embarrassing, but I found it easy working opposite Rachel because of the built in father and daughter chemistry,” he said.
Rachel Friedman is no stranger to performing arts. She said she has been dancing since the age of 2 and singing since she was 6 years old. Her acting career began three years ago when she played a role in “The Sound of Music” under the direction of Michael Donovan for Lyric Music Theater in South Portland. Rachel Friedman is also the organizer of Perform for a Cure, an annual variety show in Portland that has raised more than $20,000 for the American Cancer Society and the Cancer Community Center in South Portland.
“When I auditioned I pretty much wanted to be Annie. I’ve been watching the movie all my life,” she said.
Schuster said following “Annie,” Dynamic Productions is planning a performance of “Santa’s Christmas Crisis,” an original play by Cheryl Greeley, for the holiday season.




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“It’s the hard-knock life for us!” 11 girls sang as they pretended to scrub the floors on their hands and knees during Dynamic Production’s rehearsal for the upcoming performance of “Annie.”

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:5d65ac2d-29ca-4fcb-bfbe-7791ee79f833Sentry Editor2008-07-02T10:10:26Z2008-07-02T10:09:00ZStaff Writer
Nothing says Independence Day like fireworks, barbecued food and a neighborhood parade. While there will surely be plenty of South Portland and Cape Elizabeth residents grilling in their backyards and traveling to Bug Light Park to see the fireworks over Portland tomorrow evening, historically there hasn’t been any local parade on the Fourth of July – something the South Portland Historical Society is looking to change.
“There’s never been anything going on during the Fourth of July,” South Portland Historical Society Director Kathy DiPhilippo said. “We’d really like to start doing an annual event.”
Beginning at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Friday), residents can gather around the Mill Creek shopping center, the starting point of a short and informal walk concluding at the Thomas Knight Park where there will be refreshments and entertainment – including music, raffles and gift certificate giveaways and a visit from Benjamin Franklin – to celebrate the holiday and the historical society’s efforts to purchase the Cushing Point House adjacent to Bug Light Park.
Walkers do not need to call ahead to attend, and will be able to donate money to help the historical society purchase the Cushing Point House, a building DiPhilippo said predates the surrounding manufacturing buildings and nearby Portland Pipeline commercial oil tanker pier.
“There used to be an entire neighborhood in that area,” she said. “Now that house is all that’s left.”
DiPhilippo said the small coastal neighborhood all but disappeared when a shipyard was created during World War II. Constructing the new space changed the coastline by eliminating several houses, roads and other buildings, she said. The current owners of the property, Portland Pipeline company, agreed to sell the house to the historical society for $400,000 – the group has already raised nearly half the amount.
“That’s pretty good for a small historical society,” DiPhilippo said.
Portland Pipeline Product Movement Manager Chris Gillis said the company purchased the property and the building from the Irving Oil Company in 1999.
“We were working with [South Portland] to purchase land around Bug Light Park,” he said. “It worked out pretty well for everybody.”
The building is currently vacant, although Gillis said at one point Portland Pipeline used the house as headquarters during a construction project on the pier.
South Portland City Assessor Elizabeth Sawyer said the three-story building – located in the middle of a commercial zone – was assessed at $238,800 this year. The 2.35-acre parcel of land stretching toward the Portland Pipeline pier was assessed at $768,900, with the pier itself assessed at an estimated $3.9 million.
Gillis said the possible $400,000 purchase agreement with the historical society could include a 25,000 square foot portion of land surrounding the house.
DiPhilippo said the historical society hopes to use the building as their new headquarters and convert a portion of the interior into a museum.
Today’s event is about more than raising money to buy the Cushing Point House, however. DiPhilippo said she hopes the short walk around Knightville, down Ocean and Cottage streets and on a portion of the Greenbelt Walkway will become an annual event and grow in size.
“We’ll start with this small parade idea and see what happens,” she said. “We’re just walking around Knightville, but I love to show off South Portland.”

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Nothing says Independence Day like fireworks, barbecued food and a neighborhood parade.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:e3e8f497-9f12-4d4a-a02e-3e7afeb6d8caSentry Editor2008-07-02T10:08:55Z2008-07-02T10:07:00ZStaff Writer
New blue recycling containers will line the sidewalks in South Portland next week as the city implements its new automated recycling program in an effort to stay “green.” City councilors supporting the change are hoping the larger, 65-gallon stand-up containers – as opposed to the original 15-gallon hunter green bins – will encourage more people to recycle waste rather than throw it away.
“It’s a much larger bin, you have more space, and it will keep paper from flying out of them,” said Councilor Linda Boudreau, who also serves on the board of directors for ecomaine. “I think it is going to make the city much cleaner.”
Boudreau said Pine Tree Waste trucks will pick up the new bins along with normal waste containers and transport them to the ecomaine facility in Westbrook, where recycled material is sorted and processed. Councilor Maxine Beecher said she “was amazed” at the efficiency of the recycling process at the ecomaine facility, which has been accepting recyclables from the city since 1990.
“It’s an incredible thing they’re doing over there,” she said.
While ecomaine doesn’t charge municipalities for recycled material, there is a cost to burn non-recycled waste – $88 a ton. Ecomaine Spokesperson Shelley Dunn said during an 11-month period, South Portland sent 6,925 tons of non-recyclable waste to the facility, an approximate $609,000 cost to the city. Finance Director Rob Coombs said cost of the disposal, combined with payments “to cover the loss of electrical generation revenue and debt service,” at ecomaine cost the city a total of approximately $1.16 million last year.
“The benefit of recycling is obviously the cost avoidance factor,” Dunn said.
South Portland isn’t the first community to implement an automated recycling program; Scarborough began their program in May 2007.
“I don’t know if people really pay that much attention to it,” Scarborough Town Manager Ron Owens said. “The thing people notice is having the curbside pickup and single stream recycling; people can just throw everything into that one container and not have to worry about it.”
Dunn said ecomaine has received nearly 3,000 tons of recyclable material from Scarborough in 2008 ­– a 14 percent increase from last year – which would have cost the town more than $260,000 to throw away. Dunn said out of nearly 9,000 tons of material South Portland sent to ecomaine last year, 1,950 tons were recycled.
“We want to make it so easy, everybody will do it,” said South Portland Public Works Department Spokesperson Michelle Sturgeon. “The simpler it is, the more likely people are to do it.”
Beecher said cutting disposal costs could help the city avoid funding programs such as the pay-per-bag system, where residents purchase specially labeled bags to put their trash into.
“Unfortunately the people who get hurt the most [by the pay-per-bag system] are people with families, and they’re the least likely to be able to afford the bags,” she said. “It’s so much easier to do it across the board and come together as a community.”
Residents can either keep their old 14-gallon recycling bins or recycle them at the Highland Avenue transfer station or ecomaine. Material does not need to be sorted, but any shredded paper should be placed in a brown paper bag. No plastic bags are allowed in the blue containers, which will be picked up by Pine Tree Waste along with the green trash bins.
For more information on the new automated recycling program, contact Sturgeon at the South Portland Public Works Department at 767-7635.

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New blue recycling containers will line the sidewalks in South Portland next week as the city implements its new automated recycling program in an effort to stay “green.”

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:3165da28-82b3-4317-8b27-e603de00a6baSentry Editor2008-07-02T10:06:09Z2008-07-02T10:02:00Z“It was the stereotype,” he said.
It wasn’t until his high school voice teacher took him to a live performance that McVeigh realized opera could be his musical outlet.
“I originally thought I wanted to be on Broadway,” he said. “But then I thought the likelihood of getting on Broadway was pretty small; if your hair isn’t in the right place or they don’t like what you look like, you’re not going to make it.”
A New York native, McVeigh decided to enroll in courses at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. In addition to taking voice and acting lessons, he was required to take numerous foreign language and music theory courses.
“It was like I was getting a musicologist and music theory degree at the same time,” he said. “It was pretty rigorous.”
After three years with his nose to the grindstone, McVeigh decided to explore the world outside the Eastman School of Music and traveled to Vienna, Austria.
“I had to learn something else other than opera,” he said.
McVeigh returned to New York a year later and finished his courses at the Eastman School of Music – earning an undergraduate degree in music and voice performance – before being accepted to a young artist program with the Houston Grand Opera. He said completing such a program is a common first step in beginning an opera career.
“There are other ways to do it, but the ideal is to get into a major young artist program,” he said. “You are the emerging young artists in the industry, and they know you’re going to make mistakes and learn from them.”
McVeigh said he was “thrust onto the stage” almost immediately when he arrived in Houston and landed the role of Tybalt in a production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
“It’s not like an internship,” he said. “You’re not just helping out. Sure, you’re taking fencing, acting and voice lessons, but you’re also being involved in the performances.”
McVeigh spent two years with the Houston Grand Opera before moving back to New York in 1995 and performing with the Metropolitan Opera. It was the beginning of his career as an independent performer, but not his voice training and acting lessons, which he said he still devotes much of his time to.
“They say doctors have to go to school for eight years, but sorry they’ve got nothing on opera singers,” he said. “I’m not saying I’m a brain surgeon, but it takes a long time to know how to do this job.”
Now, McVeigh, age 38, is an “opera singer for hire.”
“When I get hired it’s for a specific role in a specific performance. I show up, they tell me what they want and when it’s done I say goodbye,” he said.
Being an independent contractor allows McVeigh to perform around the world. He said he has sung with every major opera company in the United States and some in Spain, France and Germany. It is common for American singers to travel to different companies, but overseas they will often work for a single opera house, “festing” as it’s called in the business, McVeigh said.
“I knew I did not want to fest,” he said. “I wanted to see different cities and work with different directors.”
McVeigh said the most difficult part of his career is not singing or acting, but getting used to constantly being on the road. He bought an apartment in Portland’s Old Port in 2001 “as an escape place.”
“I was traveling 11 months out of the year and basically running a hotel out of my apartment in New York,” he said. “I wanted to be part of a community where I could get away from everything.”
After nearly 15 years of performing full time, McVeigh said he is traveling less, and he decided to move permanently to South Portland in July to take an active role in supporting local performing arts.
“At first, I didn’t want anyone to know I was an opera singer. I wanted to stay anonymous,” he said. “Then I realized it was ridiculous to be here in the Portland area and not be involved in the community. I can do my part and say I will work here for less than what my normal fee is, and hopefully help raise education, outreach and awareness for the performing arts in Maine.”
Most recently, McVeigh agreed to perform as Tybalt once again in the PORTopera production of “Roméo et Juliette” at the Merrill Auditorium on July 24 and 26, a script he has become familiar with.
“It’s a relief when you can come back to a role you already know,” he said. “Most opera singers try to have 10 roles in their pockets, and maybe do two new roles a year. These days I try not to do too many new scripts.”
Even though McVeigh has performed in up to six productions in a single year, he said it’s important for aspiring opera singers to develop other skills for “dry spells” that inevitably come with the business.
“To only have one skill is limiting and foolish for anybody,” he said. “You need something to rely on to get you through the tough times.”
McVeigh said he has worked on Wall Street, been a contract administrator for a pharmaceutical company and has recently started his own jewelry design business and has shows across the state and the northeast.
“The more well rounded you are the better off you’ll be,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate in my career to be a full time opera singer, but there are always going to be dry spells. When I’m not singing, I’m in my studio.”
Despite the uncertainty that can mark a professional career in the performing arts, McVeigh said it’s worth the risk.
“I wish I had a pop star salary and a pop star home, but I don’t,” he said. “Still, there are many amazing benefits to the lifestyle that outweigh everything else.”

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John McVeigh used to think all opera singers were fat. “It was the stereotype,” he said. It wasn’t until his high school voice teacher took him to a live performance that McVeigh realized opera could be his musical outlet.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:30a37428-cc0e-47fd-bdf1-273f7d0f5e9fSentry Editor2008-07-02T10:06:58Z2008-07-02T10:01:00ZExcited about my position, I garnered the support of other brothers on the executive board and drafted an entirely new recruitment and pledge program. The new program focused on national fraternity values rather than the recreational traditions of our local chapter, as was the case for many years.
Some members of the board were willing to support the change. Contrary to the opinion of a large majority of brothers who felt the pledge process should focus on experiences rather than education – experiences they viewed as sacred traditions or rights of passage – the board implemented the new programs with an executive decree.
Despite record recruitment numbers and positive reactions from school administrators about the new plans, our chapter tore itself apart. Tensions between brothers escalated to the point where representatives from our national headquarters intervened to figure out what the problem was. As a result, several executive board members, including myself, were not only removed from their positions, but suspended from participating in chapter activities until they graduated – they could still achieve alumni status.
I spent my final semester living in a house full of very angry brothers – who undoubtedly threw my new pledge program out the window – and haven’t visited or spoken to any of them since.
In hindsight, I wonder what I thought gave me the right to think I knew what was best for the fraternity chapter, when a majority of the brothers were against my ideas? Even though I had the best intentions for the chapter, my actions resulted in no change except that I was ostracized by those I had once considered my friends.
I’m not the only one to fall into this type of political trap; the Cape Elizabeth Town Council approved a 4.6 percent increase in the budget despite an overwhelming – I sat through the four-hour public hearing – number of parents, teachers, students and residents who told them they wanted a 6 percent increase in the budget, much like the majority of my brothers who were against my proposed pledge process.
If it weren’t for the state’s new school consolidation law – stepping in much like national fraternity representatives – which allows voters the final say on the school budget, the town would have been stuck with the proposed 4.6 percent increase and Cape Elizabeth residents would have been right to feel their children’s education shortchanged by their municipal leaders.
Recent public hearings at South Portland’s City Hall have reminded me of those during Cape Elizabeth’s budget development process; whenever the city council discusses amending the ordinance allowing dogs on Willard Beach, dozens of residents attend and speak against any change. Still, some councilors are supporting amendments on the basis that they are representing residents too afraid to attend meetings, which says to me there are only a select few in South Portland against allowing dogs on the beach.
Councilors should be careful not to confuse their own agendas with the opinion of the majority, a situation that can only result in ineffective policymaking and possible political suicide, as seen in the Cape Elizabeth school budget referendum and my fraternity chapter. After all, even if our chapter did need a new pledge process, even if Cape Elizabeth residents can’t afford a tax increase and even if there are health issues on Willard Beach, isn’t it still the responsibility of elected officials to act on the will of a majority of those they represent? At what point are they allowed to become more than delegates and create policy they believe is for the greater good of the people they represent, even against the will of the majority – is that still a democratic process?
I’m no politician, but I’m not so sure.
                                                                 
                    – Nate Jones

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When I was in college, I made the drastic mistake of joining a fraternity. My senior year I was appointed pledgemaster, meaning I inherited the task of recruiting and educating new members for our chapter.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-07-02:8006f917-a2ec-4b03-98c8-e80816fec25eSentry Editor2008-07-02T10:00:52Z2008-07-02T09:59:00ZPerhaps it might help to dissipate the noxious cloud that hangs over the issue of dogs on Willard Beach if the Dog Owners Association itself stepped forward to assume some responsibility.
The South Portland Animal Control Officer logs long hours trying to monitor the situation, but he can’t, and is not expected to do so around the clock.
There are those who note his off-duty times. There are those who ignore the signs at every beach entrance. There are those who run dogs on the beach evenings, weekends, afternoons – totally disdaining the rules.
If the Dog Owners Association could assign a corp of members to rotate, backing up the animal control officer, to admonish diplomatically, in a non-confrontational manner, those breaking the rules, maybe the message would get through.
Actually at this point in the summer, violators should be fined, but if any citations actually have been levied, it would seem word would have gotten out and the deterrent would be more effective.
Willard Beach has only about a half mile of usable sand, and dog numbers have increased as neighboring communities restrict beach usage, causing more pressure as dogs are transported in by non-residents.
Some dogs also are running loose through yards, trampling gardens and newly-seeded areas. Dogs should be on a leash until on the beach and just before leaving. And chronically barking dogs need to be muzzled, if owners can’t keep them reasonably quiet otherwise.
You don’t have to live directly on Willard Beach to be affected by the dog problem. There are plenty of us others, long-term area residents, many on modest fixed incomes, that expect a fair consideration of our concerns.
Ralph Lowe
South Portland

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Perhaps it might help to dissipate the noxious cloud that hangs over the issue of dogs on Willard Beach if the Dog Owners Association itself stepped forward to assume some responsibility.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:6e0eb0c6-a029-40d2-a02f-5087d4002774Sentry Editor2008-06-27T08:51:37Z2008-06-27T08:50:00ZStaff Writer
Dog owners in South Portland sighed in relief when South Portland Dog Owners Group member Chris Kessler discovered last week’s city council 4 to 3 vote changing the hours dogs are allowed on Willard Beach, shouldn’t have been allowed on the agenda. They voted to allow dogs on the beach from 6 to 9 a.m. to 6 to 9 p.m until Sept. 30
“I just had a bad feeling about everything, looked at the city charter and saw that it was not right,” Kessler said. “It was a little shocking the city council didn’t know their own rules.”
City Clerk Susan Mooney confirmed the vote should not have been on the June 16 agenda because, the council agreed to add it with a 4 to 3 vote immediately before the vote, and such a motion requires a two-thirds majority in order to pass.
“They needed a 5 to 2 vote to put it on the agenda,” she said.
In a press release, Councilor Maxine Beecher, who first introduced the change in hours, stated she has no plans to bring the issue back to the table.
Dog owners will still be able to walk their dogs on the beach from 6 to 9 a.m. until a Willard Beach Task force – which met for the first time yesterday – determines a final arrangement between dog owners and property owners along the shoreline.
“Clearly, rules of procedure are put in place to prevent end runs around public process,” Councilor Claude Morgan, who voted against adding the item to the agenda, wrote in an email.
Morgan wrote he could not recall any other instance in which the council had agreed to suspend procedural rules to add an item to the agenda unless it was an emergency that “garnered the full, unanimous support of the council.”
“Gives you an idea of the weight that’s usually placed on waiving our standard rules of procedure,” he wrote. “We so rarely pull that trigger.”
If re-introduced to the council, the amendment would be subject to first reading and public hearing, making the earliest approval date July 21, and the ordinance would become effective Sept. 10, 20 days prior to the beginning of off-season dog access, Beecher stated.
“To reintroduce this amendment now would produce a very limited impact when approved,” Beecher added.
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Dog owners in South Portland sighed in relief when South Portland Dog Owners Group member Chris Kessler discovered last week’s city council 4 to 3 vote changing the hours dogs are allowed on Willard Beach, shouldn’t have been allowed on the agenda. They voted to allow dogs on the beach from 6 to 9 a.m. to 6 to 9 p.m until Sept. 30

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:6f2ee9a7-5708-423a-89a1-14a1e83cac82Sentry Editor2008-06-27T08:50:07Z2008-06-27T08:48:00ZStaff Writer
This summer marks the first year daycare service providers will have to comply with new pool regulations authored by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services. The rules were drafted last year after 3-year-old Andrew Thurston drowned in a swimming pool at Koala Kare in Westbrook after removing his personal flotation device and jumping into the deep end of the pool. According to news reports, Thurston and four other children the same age were under the supervision of one daycare worker, whose lifeguard certification had expired more than 18 years prior.
Most impacted by the rules are large daycare centers, who now must have a licensed lifeguard or water safety attendant on duty when there are more than three children in the water, whether they swim in a pool, lake or at a beach.
The original rules did not include guidelines for off-site water-based activities, such as trips to water parks or beaches, and will be amended to include existing emergency rules this fall. Director of Licensing and Regulatory Services Catherine Cobb said the comment period, which solicits input from daycare providers and the public, for the emergency rules will be open until July 21.
“We had put emergency rules into place last year after a child drowned. We need to move from emergency rules to permanent ones,” she said.
Cobb said the only daycare drowning death she was aware of in the state was Thurston’s.
“But we still need a set of rules,” she said.
She said there are 3,600 licensed childcare providers in the state. Family daycares are licensed to care for fewer children, generally up to 12, than large centers which may care for up to 100 children, said Cobb.   
Family daycare center rules regarding swimming pools are more relaxed, DHHS Licensing Manager Wes Uhlman said. Family daycares are not required to have a lifeguard or to register their pools with the Center for Disease Control as large centers are required to do, he said.
Family daycares must have a trained water safety attendant but are not required to have a lifeguard, he said. The difference between a water safety attendant and a lifeguard is in training, Uhlman said. Lifeguard trainees must demonstrate the ability to perform an in-water rescue but Uhlman said a water safety attendant focuses more on safety education.
Prior to the proposed rules, there was a requirement for basic water safety at all facilities, Cobb said. The new rules dictate non-swimmers be clearly identified with a different color swim cap or wrist band to make staff aware of their status. Non-swimmers must also wear a Coast Guard approved flotation device when in water deeper than their waist, Cobb said.
Large centers must provide proof of swimming instruction before allowing children to swim without a flotation device, Uhlman said, adding that rule does not apply to family daycares.
Local daycare providers have been proceeding cautiously in the wake of the new rules, including Making Friends Daycare owner Debra Boucher, whose facility is located in Biddeford. Boucher has been in the childcare field for more than 15 years and had a pool in the past that children used without incident. Last year and this year, Boucher is making due with a sprinkler because she said the new rules are “overwhelming.”
“I’m not trying to insult the state, but when you’re getting stacks of paper like this, front and back…” she said, holding up an inch-thick stack of pages. “It’s overwhelming. We all sympathize with that family and that baby, but if [the daycare] had been doing their job, it wouldn’t have happened. They are making it too impossible for us because of one mistake.”
Boucher said other daycare providers are as stumped as she is when it comes to rules for family daycares. She said she has repeatedly called her licensing specialist to explain the rules and has come away with few questions answered. Calls to Cobb were also not returned, she said.
“When [the rules] first came out, there was one piece of paper,” she said. “Then a month later, we got another and another.”
Boucher has signed up to take a Red Cross class which will certify her as a water safety attendant but said it took her two years to get into the class. She is also paying for a friend to take the class to assure there will be more than one person certified. Once they are certified, Boucher said without the friend, she would not be able to allow the children to swim because as water safety attendant, Boucher will not be counted as a member of the daycare staff. Uhlman said if there are three children or less in the pool and the water safety attendant is not in the water, the water safety attendant may be counted as staff but if there are more than three children in the water, the water safety attendant is not factored into the staff to child ratio. Boucher’s license allows her to care for up to 12 children and she said she can’t afford to hire help.
“I can’t afford more staff or to pay a lifeguard,” Boucher said. “We are grateful for all that DHHS does, but some of these rules are overboard. We are all doing our job.”
Boucher has to pay for water and sewer at her location, and said the hose is on for an average of four to five hours per day in the summer without a pool. She estimated it cost an additional $250 to $385 per month to use the sprinkler, compared to a one-time fee to fill the pool.
“All I can hear is ‘ca-ching, ca-ching, ca-ching.’ It’s easier for the large centers than us small facilities or in-home centers,” Boucher said. “I would never put my children in jeopardy.”
Boucher said she is concerned there will be daycare providers who will ignore the rules and said she hopes that does not happen for the safety of the children.
“I’m overdoing what I have to make sure my kids are safe,” she said.
Boucher has parents sign permission slips for swimming and knows each of their swimming capabilities.
“The ones that don’t swim, of course we’ve got life jackets on them,” she said of trips to the beach in the past. “It’s our job to make sure kids are safe.”  
Kim Field, owner of Building Blocks Daycare in Buxton, said many providers, including herself, are not using anything larger than wading pools because of the new rules.
“It makes it very difficult because we can’t do the things we did before,” Field said. “And as long as the kids can get wet, they’re happy.”
The permanent rules for daycare pools were put into effect in August 2007 and though the lake and beach emergency rules have not been made permanent, they must still be adhered to.
Daycare providers with questions about the rules should contact their licensing specialist or contact DHHS Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services at 287-9300.


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This summer marks the first year daycare service providers will have to comply with new pool regulations authored by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:8babadc1-f938-4ebe-ae0d-e82dea1118f2Sentry Editor2008-06-27T08:48:45Z2008-06-27T08:47:00ZStaff Writer
Portland Sea Dogs players took their places at Hadlock Field in Portland last week, not on the pitchers mound or behind home plate, but in front of the lens of a Kennebunk photographer. Liam Crotty has been recreating the work of Norman Rockwell for the past three months in preparation for a exhibit honoring the iconic artist.
Crotty and Art of The Play Art Director, Danie Connolly, joined forces in the outfield to erect a backdrop of fishing line and small lead weights to reproduce the raindrops seen in Rockwell’s “Game Called Because of Rain,” as real rain clouds formed overhead.
“It’s perfect,” Crotty said as Boston Red Sox intern Chris Ducombe donned an umpire outfit and took center stage for the photo.
Benind Ducombe, Sea Dogs intern Ryan Durrell posed as Waldoboro native, Major League Baseball player and coach Clyde Sukeforth, portrayed in the original Rockwell painting nearly 50 years ago. Sukeforth – who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds, and coached Jackie Robinson in his first Major League game – died at the age of 99 in 2000.
Crotty and Connolly said they were unaware of the Maine connection to “Game Called Because of Rain” when they originally earmarked it for reproduction, but local ties to the painting became clear as Crotty researched the scene depicted in the painting.
“I said ‘Oh my God, Clyde is from Waldoboro!’” Crotty said.
During the photo shoot, Sea Dogs Assistant Manager Chris Cameron said he remembered sitting next to Sukeforth at a game when he was a child. He said although he didn’t know who he was, his father recognized him and asked Sukeforth to sign a baseball.
“That Rockwell painting always meant something a little special to me, knowing Sukeforth was involved in it,” he said.
Cameron said he still has the signed ball.
“There are a lot of neat coincidences that come up,” Crotty said.
Sea Dogs pitchers Bo Vaughan, Matt Goodson and Mike James teamed up with third baseman Andrew Pinckney to reproduce more of Rockwell’s famous Saturday Evening Post covers; “The Rookie,” “The Glorious Sweep” and “100 Years of Baseball.”
Crotty said working “on the fly” was the most challenging aspect of the project. Rockwell – who Crotty said was known for “staging nearly everything” before he began painting in his studio – had the luxury of adding expression, lighting and color where he wanted to, whereas Crotty had to be satisfied with just a camera and flash.
“He had a lot more control over the images,” he said. “With photography, we’re dealing with live people and live weather. You do what you can.”
Crotty said fond memories of Rockwell’s work from his childhood attracted him to the project.
“When I was 10, my parents gave me a Norman Rockwell picture book,” he said. “I can remember loving the imagery, color and detail. I thought ‘OK, I’ll try one.’”
The first photo shoot of “The Runaway” at the Maine Diner in Wells  went so well, Crotty said he agreed to participate in a larger role, and for the past three months has collaborated with Connolly to arrange and photograph scenes similar to Rockwell’s paintings.
“It’s fun, I love it,” he said.
The images will be part of a three day tribute (see sidebar at top, right) – beginning Friday, Aug. 15 – to Rockwell’s work, which includes exhibits by other local artists and photographers, film showings, skits by local playwrights and specialty meals all designed to bring the personalities and scenes of his paintings to life, Connolly said.


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Portland Sea Dogs players took their places at Hadlock Field in Portland last week, not on the pitchers mound or behind home plate, but in front of the lens of a Kennebunk photographer. Liam Crotty has been recreating the work of Norman Rockwell for the past three months in preparation for a exhibit honoring the iconic artist.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:5a0119fc-81a7-484e-bbed-99c532e8f22dSentry Editor2008-06-27T08:47:45Z2008-06-27T08:46:00ZStaff Writer
Fifty-two years ago, aspiring director and musician Robert Boudreau got tired of waiting for his ship to come in and took matters into his own hands. He began construction of the 195-foot-long, 38-foot-wide, floating musical performance theater “Point CounterPoint II” and has sailed to coastal venues throughout the world. South Portland’s Bug Light park is on this year’s list of visits, and on July 2 the American Wind Symphony Orchestra will perform on Maine waters for the first time ever.
“I had graduated from Juilliard, and all of my musician friends had trouble finding places to play,” he said. “I thought it would be nice to create an opportunity.”
Starting from scratch, Boudreau began construction on the double-hulled steel barge in 1956 in Norfolk, Va. Steel sheet metal eventually evolved into a self-powered barge with an spherical roof that unfolds into a full sized concert hall with it’s own sound system – the only stage of its kind in the world, Boudreau said.
“We have musicians from all over the world,” he said. “It’s a chance for them to get a start.”
Since striking that first welding arc, Boudreau has directed performances in Russia, France, England and Ireland.
“Maine is a wonderful place,” he said. “I’ve been there several times, but not with the orchestra.”
While the musicians travel via van, airplane and sometimes other water vessels, Boudreau and his wife usually stay onboard during the travel, for which they have a separate crew and another captain to help maneuver the large vessel across oceans and navigate rivers including the east coast’s Inner Coastal Waterway. When they’re not traveling by boat, Boudreau performs at a land-based concert hall on a farm in Pennsylvania.
Boudreau said he and his wife earned their captain licenses by “learning on the job.” He said he plans to motor the barge – which draws close to seven feet of water – up the Kennebec River to Gardiner while they are in Maine.
Carol Jumper, a Falmouth native about to enter her senior year at Ithaca College in New York is one of the musicians who follows “Point CounterPoint II” along the coast. Twenty-one-year-old Jumper – who has played the trumpet since sixth grade – said she began practicing with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra just last week. 
“My trumpet teacher told me about it, so I sent in a CD and made the audition,” she said. “[Boudreau] has contacts he calls up when he needs players; there are a lot of musicians from Texas and there are some from Japan, Romania and Puerto Rico.”
While performing “on the run” can be stressful, Jumper said it’s exciting to work with other musicians, including Boudreau.
“He is really knowledgeable and a good conductor,” she said. “It’s different, it’s fun and the music’s cool.”
Jumper is the only Mainer in the group, and said she’s looking forward to staying at her family’s home in Falmouth while the group performs in state.
“I know I live there, but I’m psyched and a lot of other people haven’t ever been to Maine,” she said.
The show in South Portland’s Bug Light Park is scheduled for July 2 at 7:30 p.m., after which the barge will travel to Portland Yacht Services in Portland to perform July 4 at 7:30 p.m., then to Gardiner from July 5 to 13 and finally to the University of New England in Biddeford from July 14 to 18.


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Fifty-two years ago, aspiring director and musician Robert Boudreau got tired of waiting for his ship to come in and took matters into his own hands.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:a6eacfd1-2dea-4633-8efe-b809f81ced16Sentry Editor2008-06-27T08:46:37Z2008-06-27T08:45:00ZStaff Writer
Twice a week James Gendron travels from his South Portland residence to an art studio in Portland where he works on a number of artistic projects for a few hours. Gendron’s latest piece – a mural titled “Name of Dog” – will be portrayed alongside Cape Elizabeth resident Steven St. John’s untitled acrylic painting at a month-long “Matter of Perception” art exhibit in Cape Elizabeth beginning July 2. St. John said it took him several weeks to create the painting and he made the tough decision to make it available for purchase at the exhibit. It will be the third piece he has sold, and he said he hopes to have an art studio of his own as soon as he finishes classes at the Maine College of Art in Portland.
Both Gendron and St. John are not only accomplished artists, but adults living with disabilities.
“It is an amazing experience,” said Vision, Strength and Artistic Expression (VSA) arts of Maine Development and Marketing Coordinator, Gracia Woodward. “[The Matter of Perception exhibit] has done away with prejudices I didn’t even know I had.”
The July show is one of 15 exhibits VSA arts of Maine spearheads for adults with disabilities, and will feature 16 works of art not only by local artists but paintings, murals, drawings and other artistic mediums generated from disabled artists across the state. VSA arts of Maine Executive Director Kippy Rudy said nearly 400 submitted pieces will be displayed in exhibits from Machais to Ellsworth to Portland.
“It’s tempting to include work from the immediate area,” she said. “But we want to be certain you’ll see artists from all over. We really push for diversity.”
Diversity of location isn’t the only thing VSA arts of Maine pushes, as they accept works from artists with physical, emotional and cognitive disabilities, Woodward said.
“We hear the word ‘disability’ and it conjures up a lot of preconceived notions,” Rudy said. “People think a blind person can’t paint.”
 Rudy said people are often shocked at the quality of the images VSA arts of Maine portrays in public places such as a library or school, especially when they learn the artists are disabled.
“Creativity is not connected to disability,” she said. “It shocks people there’s not a connection there.”
Debunking preconceived notions about the disabled is one of many goals of VSA arts of Maine. Rudy said they encourage artists to put a price tag on their work so they can take home not only a sense of accomplishment, but some cash as well. Rudy said artists often have a hard time making a living just from their work, especially when they also accrue the expenses of living with a disability.
“Unfortunately, most of our artists live below the poverty line,” she said.
 VSA arts of Maine frames most of the artist submissions, and Rudy said if they choose to sell their painting at the show – last year 90 percent of the work was available for purchase and nearly one-third of the pieces were sold – artists receive 70 percent of the earnings.
“At a gallery they’d be lucky to get 50 percent,” she said.    
VSA arts of Maine is part of the international organization, Very Special Arts, founded in 1974. VSA arts of Maine’s Matter of Perception exhibits began in 1996, and is just one of the programs the organization offers for disabled children and adults in order to increase their artistic opportunities and help them stay involved with their artistic community, Woodward said.
The Matter of Perception exhibit will open at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth July 2 and run through July 30, with an artist reception scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. July 18.


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Twice a week James Gendron travels from his South Portland residence to an art studio in Portland where he works on a number of artistic projects for a few hours.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:491336b4-9d2a-470f-986c-28bd193c945fSentry Editor2008-06-27T08:45:13Z2008-06-27T08:42:00ZSixteen-year-old Michelle Smith’s above average height and thin profile are a few reasons why she was crowned Miss Teen Maine in March and will compete in an international competition in July, although her appearance comes with a price.
 Six years ago, the Scarborough resident was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, a type of connective tissue disorder.
“Imagine you have glue in your body holding everything together,” she said. “It’s like my glue is watered down.”
 Smith’s height – 6-foot-1-inch at age 16 and still growing – elongated hands and her flexibility are all common of the syndrome, which can affect tissue in the skeletal system as well as the eyes and heart. Over time, tissue around the heart’s aortic valve become weak and the slightest increase in heart rate can cause it to rupture, as was the case with Broadway musical “R.E.N.T.” writer and composer Jonathan Larson, who died in 2001, Smith said.
“His case was like me times 10,” she said.
Smith said it was difficult to see the many degrees of Marfan syndrome when she was first diagnosed at a hospital in Chicago.
“It was scary seeing people who have it worse than I do, and not knowing where I would lie,” she said.
Doctors concluded Smith’s syndrome was focused in her skeletal system and showed no signs of affecting her heart. Smith doesn’t have to take any medication, but receives an echocardiogram every other year to make sure her heart isn’t threatened. She also gave up sports once she was positively diagnosed, a tough decision for an active child, she said.
“It was scary, everybody telling me I can’t do this and can’t do that. Nobody likes being told what they can’t do, especially a 10-year-old,” she said. “Being 10 and doing cheering, it was one of the worst spots to be. Obviously I was sad.”
While Smith will most likely be near sighted – the tissue in her eyes, much like in her joints, isn’t as strong as it should be – and has pinched nerves and disc problems in her back, she said luckily her diagnosis is not as severe as others she has met, and can live with the back pain.
“I know it,” she said. “It’s all I know, it’s not like I was in an accident.”
Smith began to train herself to lower her heart rate – which can double suddenly for no apparent reason – by “bearing down,” and concentrating on calming the muscle; a skill not all people can do unless they are taught at an early age.
It took Smith a year to “turn around” her diagnosis and convince her mother to let her enter a beauty pageant.
“I’m not going to sit around and not use [Marfan syndrome] to my advantage,” she said.
In 2004, Smith was rated in the top 10 of more than 140 girls to participate in a beauty pageant in Lewiston.
“I had no clue it was going to be that big,” she said. “I figured it might be beginners luck, but what the heck, I’ll keep trying.”
The syndrome not only gave her the looks to turn heads on the runway, but a cause she could devote herself to, she said.
“You can’t win a beauty pageant just on a boardwalk,” she said. “Looking good is just putting the ribbon around the package that’s already wrapped.”
Smith has been featured in Supermodel magazine, the Miss Teen International competition and interviewed by FOX News, and next to nearly every one of her headshots is a statement raising public awareness of Marfan syndrome and its effects.
“Not enough people know about it,” she said. “Using my crown, I can open the door and show people.”
Doctors believe about one in 5,000 people have Marfan’s, and Smith said they estimate only half of those with the syndrome are ever diagnosed.
With her mother’s help, Smith has put together what she calls a “Marfan for dummies” awareness package with diagnosis criteria, common symptoms and information on the National Marfan Foundation to help those who may have the syndrome, or have already been diagnosed, understand that it is possible to live successfully with Marfan syndrome.
Smith said she particularly tries to inform school nurses about the syndrome, and recommends they screen students with a “positive thumb and wrist sign” technique – can someone bend their thumb inside their palm so it protrudes beyond the pinky finger, or touch their thumb and pinky around their wrist – that could identify Marfan syndrome early on.
“It’s non-invasive and kids love to show the weird things they can do,” Smith said.
This year Smith has been selected to speak at the July 10, three-day National Marfan Foundation’s annual conference in Boston, and said she’s excited to connect with other “Marfies” from around the world.
“There’s a whole different level of understanding at the conference,” she said. “I love being different, but I’m still a teen, I want to fit in.”
As part of her involvement with the foundation, Smith said she often converses with other teens diagnosed with the syndrome, which can be particularly devastating for teenage boys heavily involved with sports.
“I tell them it’s not the end of the world,” she said. “You can’t sit around saying, ‘Why me,’ at some point you need to say, ‘Why not me?’”
Smith and her mother are both hopeful she may never require heart surgery – as those whose aortic valves are directly affected by the syndrome often do – but are keeping their eyes on the progress of Losartan, a blood pressure medication that has shown signs of repairing damaged tissue in trials with mice.
“It’s very promising,” Smith’s mother, Blue Smith, said.
For more information on Marfan syndrome or the July 10 national conference taking place at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, Mass., visit the National Marfan Foundation’s Web site www.marfan.org.


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Sixteen-year-old Michelle Smith’s above average height and thin profile are a few reasons why she was crowned Miss Teen Maine in March and will compete in an international competition in July, although her appearance comes with a price.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:3d96f36b-66fd-4e34-89fb-7113c1768487Sentry Editor2008-06-27T08:42:37Z2008-06-27T08:41:00ZSpecial to the Sentry
I recently visited a beautiful rose garden fully engulfed in color and fragrance. In a square plot about 30 feet across, stood more than 25 rose bushes of different sizes, shapes and colors. On this day, after several days of sunshine and intermittent showers, the blossoms seemed to have reached their zenith with each bud stretching in the sun and bursting with color.
While most were still in full bloom, there was a circle of spent rose petals on the ground around a few of the early blooming varieties.
Viewed from above, the shriveled up blossoms reminded me of the chalk-line used by the police to indicate where a crime has occurred. Luckily, in this case, there was no crime, but rather the natural progression of life.
All spring, I had wanted to revisit this place since I first stumbled across it last winter purely by chance. That cold and windy day, rather than take the route that I usually followed  – along the Penobscot River Walk in Westbrook – I decided to head out in the opposite direction to see what I could see.
Now, due to the paved sidewalks I was walking on, it was virtually impossible to determine if this was in fact the proverbial “road less taken” ...but it certainly did deliver me to a place that I would never have known existed within the harsh urban landscape of Main Street in Westbrook.
That winter day, my curiosity was piqued by a relatively unsightly pile of pine branches carefully crisscrossing a raised plot of land. In one corner, a single small sign protruded up from the pile with the words “Whitney Rose Garden” proudly withstanding the cold winds in raised white lettering.
Soon after my visit, the snow came and it continued to fall for many months. In the back of my mind, I would sometimes think about the Rose Garden now patiently waiting under a blanket of snow, ice, rock salt and road grime.
Yes, this wonderful oasis of color is located precariously at the crossroads of no less than four major routes. The plot stood no more than 15 feet from the road and was constantly bombarded with exhaust fumes, sand and salt. Victory Garden it was not.
Fast-forward a few months. On this early summer day, I decide to chance a quick trip back to the Rose Garden under threatening skies filled with heavy clouds and something the weathermen are now calling ‘disruptive sunshine.’
By now, I found that the pine boughs have long since been removed and each rose bush is now full of new growth, prickly stems and glossy green leaves. I can also see now that the garden was a created as a gift. A small granite slab proclaims “Planted in Memory of Dr. Ralph and Mildred Whitney. Donated by the Percy Conant Family – June 1983.”
Now here I was visiting the place 25 years later – June 2008. As I walked back to my office, I began to wonder about the Whitney and Conant family and specifically why they were forever linked by this perennial plot of bountiful color and life.
Unfortunately, a quick Google search turned up very little. Not surprising since any news about the dedication would have occurred before there actually was an Internet. In time, I plan to talk to some of the long-time residents and businesses in the area to see if I could learn anything more.
As I mentioned, the Rose Garden is located at a major intersection of several busy roads in Westbrook. Spending some time at this crossroads, with drivers zipping past more concerned with merging safely into traffic than looking at flowers, I sit and realize that we’ve also reached a crossroads in the growing season.
Where nature has pretty much taken care of itself for these first weeks of spring and summer, how well or poorly our gardens perform from here on in is a direct result of the amount of time, energy and attention we, as gardeners are prepared to give it. After all, we gardeners have very little to do with getting tulips, crocuses or lilies emerging from the ground. They pretty much take care of that on their own. This is also true of most perennials, roses included.
However, it is at this point in the year when many flowers and vegetables will call upon us to help them survive in times of drought, invasions from pests, disease and prune them in order to promote healthy, sustainable growth.
Yes, this is the time of year that separates the gardening ‘men from the boys’ – of any gender. While just about anyone can get spring bulbs to pop every year, it takes much more effort to faithfully tend to vegetables, deadhead perennials, weed out weeds and train climbers to grow where you want them to.
It’s an important time of the year and some of the things that need to be done can seem counter-intuitive. For example, remember the chrysanthemums I spoke of planting (rather than just decorating with) last fall? By now, the plant’s new growth should have emerged and last year’s dead stalks cut away. While these thick green stems are not much to look at now, here’s a tip for getting their late summer / early fall blooms to be all they can be.
Cut them back - by half. Now.
Yes, cut back the stalks halfway to the ground. ‘Pinching back’ the stems will promote lateral growth (instead of vertical) resulting in many more flower blooms in the fall. At first, I found this advice hard to swallow. How could removing nearly six inches of perfectly good growth be a good thing? Trust me though, it works.
After all, I guess there is something to the idea of stepping back, slowing down growth and stopping to smell the roses. I wish the people who speed by the Whitney Rose Garden twice a day would do the same thing instead of honking their horns at each other– I’m sure that’s what the Whitney and Conant families would have wanted too.
Tim King is a freelance writer who sees the forest and the trees from his home in Scarborough. He can be reached at sylvan.sauntering@gmail.com






















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I recently visited a beautiful rose garden fully engulfed in color and fragrance. In a square plot about 30 feet across, stood more than 25 rose bushes of different sizes, shapes and colors. On this day, after several days of sunshine and intermittent showers, the blossoms seemed to have reached their zenith with each bud stretching in the sun and bursting with color.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:0d4490d8-ae6e-492d-aeee-542e08367004Sentry Editor2008-06-27T08:41:14Z2008-06-27T08:40:00ZI voted against the Cape Elizabeth School Budget. 
I love children and I have great respect for education, so my negative vote doesn’t imply otherwise. 
I am sure that the school board has worked very, very hard on this budget, and from their perspective, they are more than justified in causing an increase in the high rate of our property taxes.  
From my perspective – not so. Obvious reasons being the increase in fuel, gas, food and a general sense of insecurity that now exists in our country. 
Well, it looks like my wishes are not going to tip the balance in my favor this time, but I hope in the future, and for a long time in the future, my wishes and others that agree with me will be favored. 
These are not good times.
 Barbara Durgin
Cape Elizabeth
 
 



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I voted against the Cape Elizabeth School Budget.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:2dfebb37-6215-4e75-a509-0824e807c7faSentry Editor2008-06-27T08:40:32Z2008-06-27T08:39:00ZIn response to Brian Allen’s letter to the editor [“City needs park free of barks,” June 20, 2008]:
I am sorry your daughter got knocked over by a dog on the beach. I truly am. The owner should have had the dog under control. I apologize for the owner of that dog.
You state that all dogs are in a ‘pack mentality’ and I do not agree with that statement anymore than all children are unruly. Yes, some dog owners should not have dogs. Some parents should not have children. That does not make what happened to your daughter OK, it is just reality.  
It is unnecessary for you to avoid visiting Willard Beach. The beach is closed to dogs at this time of year after 9 a.m. Dogs are allowed on the beach from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. only. If you want to visit the beach before 9 a.m., I learned last Monday that there is a beach at the end of Adams Street, right near Willard Beach. The councilor said that it is very nice. There are other small beaches where you can enjoy a morning walk before school as well. There is a nice small one on Front Street.
Sometimes I am not in the mood to be at the beach when there are lots of unruly children running across my blanket or towel, screaming and kicking sand at me. I avoid it on those days even though it is a beautiful day to sit by the ocean. Sometimes I am more relaxed and can endure the mayhem. I am never in the mood to be on the beach when there are young adults drinking and having sex on the beach. I truly avoid those times even though the moon may be full, the night warm and the beach would be a wonderful place to visit. We all share the beach at different times. The key word is “share.” You state that there should be one park in South Portland where dogs are not allowed. You have it! Willard Beach after 9 a.m. from May 1 until Sept. 30!
You also state that when salmonella is found in a few tomatoes, we remove all tomatoes? Every grocery store I have visited in the last two months since this was found, still has tomatoes. It is our choice to buy or not to buy. It is your choice to go to the beach with dogs, with kids, with young adults. We have a choice!
Again, I am sorry about the experience your daughter had. I hope she recovers and does not incur any long lasting fears from this experience. Like falling off a horse, probably the best medicine would be to visit the beach again and let her see that this is not an every day occurrence.
Judith Cunningham
South Portland
 


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In response to Brian Allen’s letter to the editor [“City needs park free of barks,” June 20, 2008]: I am sorry your daughter got knocked over by a dog on the beach. I truly am. The owner should have had the dog under control. I apologize for the owner of that dog.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:fdfd673b-0c1f-4b7b-8eb0-666352b163b4Sentry Editor2008-06-27T08:39:44Z2008-06-27T08:38:00ZKudos to Brian Allen for taking an aggressive stand on the dog issue that is finally being handled in South Portland.
As a mother of three small children and a lifetime user of Willard Beach, I too am shocked at the overuse of South Portland’s prime parks and beach areas by dogs and their often unreasonable and uncaring owners. I too have had many unpleasant altercations at Willard Beach and our town parks – some involving police officer intervention.
It is obvious that change is in order. Clearly, dogs should not be allowed on Willard Beach at any time of day or year, not only for safety reasons, but also for environmental and aesthetic reasons. The privilege has now been so abused that Willard Beach is commonly referred to be a “dog beach.” I was recently told by a dog owner that I was a negligent parent for bringing my children to “The Dog Beach” (Willard Beach).
Equally abused and inappropriately mislabeled as dog parks Hinckley Park and Bug Light Park have become off limits to people due to fear of off leash dogs. Additionally, I have had scary situations involving dogs at Mill Creek Park and at local playgrounds.
If the dog owners wish to run their dogs off leash it should be at a dog park. Portland has one. Voice control is unenforceable and dangerous to our most vulnerable citizens: the children and the elderly.
Please enforce and strengthen the leash laws South Portland, and give the people back the freedom to use South Portland’s scenic spaces without fear. Ban dogs from Willard Beach and all city parks period.
Roxanna Kennedy
South Portland


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Kudos to Brian Allen for taking an aggressive stand on the dog issue that is finally being handled in South Portland.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-27:fa1638fb-8c6f-4e07-bd44-5ae3cd08a5acSentry Editor2008-06-27T08:38:51Z2008-06-27T08:37:00ZThe Maine Department of Public Safety recently released their “Crime in Maine” report for 2007. For the third year in a row, there was an increase in the number of rapes reported to police in Maine; up by more than 15 percent from 2006.
While this data is helpful in demonstrating how many females over 18 decide to report their assaults to police, the numbers are limiting when we try to gauge the prevalence of the crime. We can, however, look to a 2007 study conducted by the Muskie School of Public Service, which revealed that 1 in 5 Maine residents report having been a victim or rape or attempted rape in their lifetime.
The increase in reports to police combined with the number of Mainers who have experienced this devastating crime provide ample reason for all of us to do more to prevent this violence from occurring in the first place. Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine (SARSSM) urges everyone to learn more about the many ways you can be part of the solution. It can be as simple as speaking out to dispel myths about victims and perpetrators, visiting our Web site at www.sarsonline.org to become more educated about the issues or offering your time as a volunteer. If enough people take a stand against sexual violence, perhaps a day will come when there are no sexual assaults reported to police simply because no sexual violence occurred. 
Cyndi Amato, Executive Director
Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern
Maine


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The Maine Department of Public Safety recently released their “Crime in Maine” report for 2007. For the third year in a row, there was an increase in the number of rapes reported to police in Maine; up by more than 15 percent from 2006.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:9bc77fba-d9f4-43f5-b1fc-c816d8cc5631Sentry Editor2008-06-23T08:47:30Z2008-06-23T08:46:00ZStaff Writer
Cape Elizabeth School Board members and town councilors entered new territory last week after 60 percent of voters rejected a proposed $19.7 million school budget. A 1,891 to 1,250 vote was tallied after the town’s first budget validation referendum June 10.
The school board voted to “stand behind” its original proposal of a 6 percent increase from last year’s budget in a special school board meeting Monday. Councilor Mary Ann Lynch said she expected the council to discuss the proposed budget at their meeting scheduled for June 26.
Jim Rier, Maine Department of Education director of finance and operations, said the referendum must take place within 10 days of the council vote, meaning the polls could be open again as soon as July 8.
Cape Elizabeth residents are not the first voters to reject the school budget during the referendum mandated by the school consolidation law. Maine Department of Education’s David Connerty-Marin estimated about 12 percent of towns in Maine have also sent their school budgets back to workshop – although possibly for much different reasons than Cape Elizabeth residents.
According to results from an advisory question included on the ballot asking voters if they thought the proposed budget was too high or too low, more than 1,600 Cape Elizabeth residents are in favor of increasing the school budget by more than the proposed 4.6 percent over last year’s budget.
Now the school board and town council are trying to figure out just how much higher to go.
During public hearings last month, some residents advocated a 6 percent, or roughly an additional $263,000 increase in spending from last year’s budget.
A 6 percent increase would allocate nearly $20 million for the schools in 2009, and could mean a 6.6 percent overall increase in property taxes. Hawkins said at $12.62 per $1,000 of assessed value, the tax bill for a median home in Cape Elizabeth could increase by more than $200 a year if the 6 percent increase is approved.
David Hillman, a member of the town’s Citizen Advocates for Public Education (C.A.P.E.) organization, said if the next budget proposal includes an increase any less than 6 percent, it too would likely be rejected.
“[Voters] really were deciding between 4.6 and 6 percent,” he said. “A fair reading of the vote is the people want 6 percent and they want it over with; 6 percent would do it.”
Hillman said the group was pleased with referendum results and impressed with the “outstanding turnout” of Cape Elizabeth residents who took the time to vote on the issue. He said he hoped the town council’s interpretation of the vote would motivate them to present a budget with a 6 percent increase in the next referendum, which could take place as early as June 30.
Several emails between town councilors and the Sentry following the referendum show some already agree that moving forward with the 6 percent increase to the next referendum is the right thing to do.
“Before the public vote I said that if a majority of the voters rejected the 4.6 percent budget increase and indicated that they thought the 4.6 percent was too low, I would support sending the school board’s 6 percent proposed budget increase to the voters for approval,” Councilor David Backer wrote.
Councilors Anne Swift-Kayatta and Sara Lennon – who both voted against the 4.6 percent increase – wrote they will also support presenting a 6 percent increase to voters.
Hillman said this is the only rational option for councilors after what he called a “super majority” of residents showing their support for additional spending. Some councilors, however, interpret the results of the advisory question differently.
“We can see that voter sentiment may actually be quite evenly divided,” Councilor James Rowe wrote. “Does a 52 percent majority constitute a mandate to move the next public vote to 6 percent? I’m frankly not sure and am very open to hearing further discussion.”
Both Lennon and Hillman said they disagree with Rowe’s interpretation that only 52 percent of voters favored additional spending, an opinion that relies on arithmetic based on his assumptions of the different ways residents responded to the advisory question. Hillman, after reviewing the email from Rowe, determined Rowe had “created 393 fictional votes” to justify his reasoning that the referendum resulted in 52 percent majority being in favor of increasing the school budget.
“The difference is 528 votes,” Lennon wrote. “That means a sizable percentage voted that the budget was too low. It defies simple fairness and logic, to create voters and then create how they might have voted. Of the real voters who actually voted, 60 percent said ‘too low.’”
They may have different opinions of the advisory question results, but most town councilors are in agreement the vote was, as Swift-Kayatta described it, “an example of democracy in action.”
Rowe congratulated the “no, too low” supporters and Lennon wrote the referendum was “an affirmation to all of the incredible people who work for our schools.”
“In these times of apparent recession, when fuel and food prices are putting families under financial pressure, as a community we should have some sense of pride that our residents feel so strongly about the quality and strength of local education and that they mobilize and organize themselves to ensure that their taxes are raised even more than their elected officials are inclined to tax them,” Backer said.
Per the new state school consolidation law, Rier said the school board can present a revised budget to the council no sooner than 10 days following the referendum, making today the earliest they could have presented the 6 percent increased budget to the town council.
During Monday’s meeting, the school board encouraged Lynch to hurry the process along, as teacher contracts cannot be ratified until the budget is finalized. Superintendent Alan Hawkins said during the delay, one teacher had already accepted a position in Gorham.
“Every day I have to wait; you can imagine where the anxiety level is,” Hawkins said.


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Cape Elizabeth School Board members and town councilors entered new territory last week after 60 percent of voters rejected a proposed $19.7 million school budget. A 1,891 to 1,250 vote was tallied after the town’s first budget validation referendum June 10.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:2a4d1293-8593-49da-b73b-73079ad4bc87Sentry Editor2008-06-23T08:46:34Z2008-06-23T08:45:00ZStaff Writer
Since 1999, the 120,000-square-foot office building on Running Hill Road in South Portland has housed the East Coast headquarters for the international company Fairchild Semiconductor. Last year, the city received nearly $80,000 in business equipment taxes from the company, revenue that could be lost if Fairchild relocates to Scarborough next year.
The building – built for UNUM in 1986 – and the surrounding 12 acres is currently owned by the Dead River Company, and the lease with Fairchild is scheduled to expire at the end of 2009. Dead River Spokesman Anne Littlefield said Fairchild had not given notice that they were going to move, but she was “aware they were looking” and had made several proposals to encourage them to either extend the lease or possibly build a new structure.
“I will fill it if I have to,” she said of the structure.
New England Expedition LLC Spokesman, Gene Beaudoin, – the developers behind the Gateway at Scarborough project, which includes the 130,000-square-foot Cabela’s retail building – said a sketch of a new 90,000-square-foot Fairchild Semiconductor office building is expected to be considered at the June 23 Scarborough Planning Board meeting.
“We’ve been talking with Fairchild for some time,” Beaudoin said. “At this point they’re still in the design phase.”
Scarborough Economic Development Corporation (SEDCO) President Harvey Rosenfeld said the new building could be one of the largest office buildings in the town and is the type of development SEDCO originally envisioned within the Gateway project. Although the Cabela’s building has attracted other retailers, he said it’s important to reserve space for high-end office needs, as there is already close to one million square feet approved for retail space in Scarborough.
“It’s time to now start on something else to diversify the economy of the town,” he said. “The obvious financial benefit is the taxable value of a first class office facility.”
South Portland Assessor Elizabeth Sawyer said the city would continue to collect roughly $241,000 in real estate taxes on the building – purchased by the Dead River Company for $15 million in October 2006 – and the surrounding property regardless of whether or not it was occupied, but would not collect any business equipment or personal property tax as long as it remained vacant.
“I’m sure [Dead River] knew of the expiration of the lease agreement when they purchased the building,” she said.
Fairchild Semiconductor spokesperson Patti Olsen said the Scarborough location is “one of many” options they are still considering, including possibly extending the current lease with Dead River. 
One of the attractions of the Gateway development is the new building would be constructed to LEED “silver” standard, making it one of the most energy efficient buildings currently being built, she said.
“We are hopeful everything will work out,” Olsen said.
Beaudoin said the building could be built across the street from the Cabela’s store, south of a pond that is yet to be constructed. There are three other companies interested in office space within the Gateway – with needs ranging from 55,000 to 100,000-square-foot buildings – and although there is not enough space for them all, Beaudoin said they are still looking for interested parties.
“It’s a good problem to have,” he said.
While Fairchild is looking at different locations to house the 300 employees currently working at the South Portland building, Olsen said there are no plans to relocate their manufacturing facility on Western Avenue with 600 employees.
“That one’s not moving,” she said.
Should the project receive approval from the  Scarborough Planning Board, Beaudoin said construction could start in October.


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Since 1999, the 120,000-square-foot office building on Running Hill Road in South Portland has housed the East Coast headquarters for the international company Fairchild Semiconductor.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:c638c579-f6bd-4534-b886-d34473d9e5d0Sentry Editor2008-06-23T08:45:25Z2008-06-23T08:44:00ZStaff Writer
Strains of Indian music streamed from the auditorium at Scarborough High School this week as students practiced for Saturday’s “Expressive Rhythms” performance of bharathantyam, a type of traditional Indian dancing.
Bharathantyam is more than 3,000 years old, among the oldest forms of dance in India. An interpretation of the name combines Indian words meaning expression, music, rhythm and dance. It was originally performed by devadasis, or servants of God, but has evolved into a more traditional dance linking people to past traditions while still linking dance with religion, according to information provided by Indhra Rajashekar of Scarborough.
Students ranging in age from 4 to 11  are learning bharathantyam by Rajashekar, founder of the Eastern Cultural Heritage Exchange, or ECHO, a non-profit group established to bring eastern culture to southern Maine. Rajashekar said ECHO has another meaning aside from being an abbreviation of the organization’s name.
“We are not doing anything new. I want to make sure the voices of the past continue on,” she said. “That is the echo of the past.”
For now, students learn bharathantyam, but Rajashekar said she hopes to incorporate music and instruments into her teachings in the future. She said the dance requires discipline as well as a mind-body connection and said some children become more focused and increase their concentration using the principles of bharathantyam.
“It is physically demanding and involves a lot of expression,” she said. “It is very spiritually based with a message conveyed in every song. The audience takes home a message.”
Rajashekar began learning the traditional dance when she was 6 years old, and she began teaching her daughters, Rangapriya, 16, and Harinni, 10, at the same age. She said the dance takes years to learn adequately and said Rangapriya is nearing the graduation ceremony that marks her mastery of bharathantyam.
Classes take place at Stages Academy on Route 1 in Scarborough, where Rajashekar regularly invites guest teachers from India to help instruct the students, including Renjith Choorakkad, who will perform yoga and kalari, an Indian martial art, during Saturday’s performance.
“So this way people in Maine will get familiar with these art forms,” she said, adding she plans to host additional performances during the coming year. “I want more people to know, so kids growing up here will have an idea what’s going on on the other side.”
Rajashekar taught Indian dancing for 15 years in New York City before moving to Maine.
“But I could not stop doing what I’m doing,” she said, adding there are no other bharathantyam teachers in southern Maine.
Nalini Dasana of Scarborough said she used to drive her daughter, Ragasri, to New Hampshire every Sunday for lessons until she met Rajashekar. She said 5-year-old Ragasri loves dancing and music.
“It’s considered very high esteem in our culture [to learn bharathantyam],” she said.
Dasana said she does not have to remind Ragasri to practice because her daughter enjoys it so much. Ragasri said she likes dancing and said it is easy to learn, while nodding her head vigorously when asked if she was excited about performing in front of an audience.
Scarborough resident Sudha Chaganti said next year she plans to enroll her 3-year-old daughter in the classes currently attended by her 4-year-old daughter, Harshini, who joined the class because she likes to dance.
There are currently eight children enrolled in bharathantyam classes with Rajashekar. She said she plans to offer adult classes in the future if there is an interest.






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Strains of Indian music streamed from the auditorium at Scarborough High School this week as students practiced for Saturday’s “Expressive Rhythms” performance of bharathantyam, a type of traditional Indian dancing.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:eba96086-a89b-46a4-8e68-c6947a07e9ceSentry Editor2008-06-23T08:43:58Z2008-06-23T08:42:00ZStaff Writer
Dog owners nearly lost the right to walk their pets along Willard Beach in South Portland, instead they now will have to visit the shoreline between 6 and 9 p.m., until a task force formed by the South Portland City Council comes up with a final solution.
The council announced members of the task force on Monday night during its meeting: Elizabeth Ross, a community leader; Dr. Douglas Howell, a gastroentologist at Maine Medical Center and Willard Beach property owner; Bob Johnson, the owner of Scratch Bakery and Magic Hat Brewery in Vermont; Gary Crosby, a South Portland resident; Rita Nappi, a member of the energy and recycling committee and Devon Gray, a Willard Beach property owner, will join councilors James Hughes and Claude Morgan on the task force. Assistant City Manager Erik Carson will be the city’s staff assistant to the task force.
“I’m looking forward to all of these folks being very objective fact finders,” Morgan said.
The council narrowly approved the suggestion made by Councilor Maxine Beecher to amend the current ordinance to allow dogs on Willard Beach 6 to 9 p.m. from July 8, to Sept. 30. City Clerk Susan Mooney said although the item made it onto the official agenda, her office had not received proper notice of the motion and the council agreed to add it to the docket with a 4 to 3 vote and approved it with another 4 to 3 vote with councilors Tom Blake, Morgan and James Soule in the minority.
Morgan, who also voted against adding the item to the agenda, said the motion had changed that very morning, and it “seemed like it was slipping in the back door with the lights off.”
“You insult me,” Beecher responded.
Hughes, who said he received input from an overwhelming number of people who were opposed to allowing dogs on the beach, took Beecher’s suggestion a step further and proposed eliminating all dog access to the beach from July to September this year.
“We’ve gone from the ridiculous to the absurd,” resident Tom Ayers said during public comment.
South Portland resident Jeff Inglas said he received all emails sent to the councilors on the issue via the Freedom of Information Act, and Beecher had received none in favor of banning dogs from the beach, and Hughes had received “a few.”
“The emails do not support what you have proposed and what you said you have received,” he said.
Hughes’ motion to eliminate dog access to Willard Beach failed in a 3 to 4 vote with Hughes, Beecher and Councilor Linda Boudreau in the minority.
“I want us to start working together, and the sooner the better,” Morgan said.
Morgan said the task force could begin to meet as soon as next week, and although their meetings will be accessible to the public, he did not expect public input would be allowed during the meetings.
CIP budget approved
The council also unanimously approved the allocation of nearly $1.5 million for the city’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) as proposed by City Manager Jim Gailey. In addition to $245,000 for environmental protection – including a new utility truck and trailer for  Water Resource protection – $135,000 for public safety – including a new fire department service truck – and $888,000 for public works and transportation – including adding several crosswalks to the Mill Creek area and funds for a street paving program – the CIP also includes $80,000 for renovations to municipal buildings to make them more energy efficient.
“I think we’re all looking to that in our own home,” Boudreau said.
At a council workshop last week, Gailey had originally asked to increase the CIP by $65,000 for energy efficency projects, but increased the amount in reaction to an “overwhelming amount of support” shown by the council, he said.
Service monument
The council approved the construction of a monument honoring all U.S. servicemen and women in the corner of Mill Creek Park abutting the property that is now home to the Maine Memorial Museum.
“Instead of it being stuck on a side street somewhere, we want to show our respect for those who have served,” Service Monument Committee Chairman Kevin Battle said.
Boudreau abstained from the vote, saying she “was in a very unusual situation” as she had taken part in a separate discussion on the issue during her involvement with the Friends of Mill Creek Park organization.


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Dog owners nearly lost the right to walk their pets along Willard Beach in South Portland, instead they now will have to visit the shoreline between 6 and 9 p.m., until a task force formed by the South Portland City Council comes up with a final solution.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:81801c41-885b-4ab1-9ad5-74439afeca60Sentry Editor2008-06-23T08:42:23Z2008-06-23T08:41:00Z“It’s kind of a family joke,” she said. “Everybody always said ‘when you get through all the performing arts you’re going to go to the visual.’”
Hughes said her musical career began in the seventh grade, when she first picked up a flute. She went on to graduate from the University of Georgia with a degree in music education and spent three years teaching nearly 1,500 students ranging from elementary school to junior high in a small Alabama mill town.
“It was not a pretty picture,” she said. “It was overwhelming.”
Once she had had enough of teaching music, Hughes decided to become a modern dancer. She began performing with groups in Alabama, and with the original Ram Island Dance Company in Portland when she moved to Maine in the 1970s.
Fifteen years later, at age 41, Hughes once again realigned her sights and began acting. She performed once with the Portland Stage Company while attending acting courses at the University of Southern Maine. In 1983 she began teaching theater at the Waynflete School in Portland.
One of her former Waynflete students was recently nominated for a Tony award.
“I take absolutely no credit for it,” she laughed. “He was one of those kids that just did it, and did it well.”
Hughes taught at the school for 16 years before she retired in 1999. 
Hughes said her experience with each of the different art mediums – music, dance and theatre – complement one another. She said her experience with each have helped her succeed in all her different positions.
“When it was time to do a musical at Waynflete, I would know the music,” she said. “There is definitely a correlation.”
Now, if you happen to walk by her small studio in South Portland – with large picture windows overlooking busy Cottage Street – you’re more likely to spot her putting paint to canvas than playing a flute, practicing a dance move or rehearsing her lines. For the past eight years, Hughes has spent six hours each day painting in the top floor of the small, cottage-like building, while she listens to music and watches the weather change outside.
“If you don’t do it, you don’t get what you want from it,” she said of her rigorous daily routine. “I just like painting, I like the solitude of it.”
Hughes said she took courses at the Maine College of Art shortly after she retired.
“I already knew what I wanted to do, I figured I had better figure out how to do it,” she said.
Hughes said she painted with watercolors for “about a year” before she settled on painting with oil, now her sole medium.
“I like it because you can just paint right over it,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about it.”
Hughes’ first art show was in 2003, in what used to be Barbara’s Kitchen in South Portland. Since then she has donated paintings to Audubon auctions and various local exhibits while staying in touch with other students at the Maine College of Art in Portland. 
“There are a lot of artists here,” she said. “It’s wonderful to be able to look up to so many people.”
Hughes recently finished a series of paintings to be featured at the 3fish Gallery in Portland, paintings inspired by this past winter.
“It was such a hard winter I just said, ‘OK, let’s make it work,’” she said.
The paintings feature snow-covered landscapes at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth, Bug Light and some of the oil tanks dotting the South Portland area. Hughes said she began working on the exhibit in January, painting from pictures she took.
“Some people paint outside in the winter, but I’m not one of them,” she said.
Hughes said she quickly learned how difficult it was to paint snow.
“Living in Maine, we’re surrounded by it all the time, but to try and paint it is something totally different,” she said.
The outdoor settings featured in her upcoming exhibit are just one of the many things Hughes said she enjoys painting.
“I enjoy the story that people and interiors tell us,” she said, pointing at her painting of a man and a woman inside a room, each with a glass in hand. “You don’t know what is going on there, but it’s something.”
Hughes said she makes a point to return to Waynflete at least once a year to help put together costumes, direct and teach theater students.
“I enjoy keeping up with the kids,” she said.
Hughes said she brings the dynamic nature of the performing arts into her paintings.
“There is always so much going on in the theater, and I’m used to that,” she said. “I don’t lack ideas. Starting a painting is great, you’re excited and want to get into it, but then you can go too far. I think the greatest challenge is knowing when to stop.”
While Hughes stays in touch with her roots on the stage by visiting Waynflete and sometimes painting photographs of certain theatrical scenes, she said she has no plans to go back to acting or to move on to a different artistic genre in the future.
“If I’m acting, I’m not painting,” she said. “Painting is it, there’s nothing else.”


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She’s been a dancer, a musician, an actor and a teacher. South Portland resident Claudia Hughes said it was only natural she would begin painting after she retired.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:e17fe64f-d950-424e-82e2-3f06fae41569Sentry Editor2008-06-23T08:41:03Z2008-06-23T08:40:00ZSpecial to the Sentry
Now that the protracted Democratic primary season is finished, I feel it’s time to review my Maine to Oregon saga complete with new insights, not just political but all across the spectrum of life in general.
First off is my distinct impression that Maine does much better comparatively to Oregon than I had previously thought. There are serious political schisms in this state, more so than in Maine. The division in sentiment between the two congressional districts in Maine pales when the north to south fracture in Oregon comes into play. Southern Oregon reflects the north vs. south chasm that is so prominent in other states, like California, Arizona, Louisiana, Illinois and Ohio, just to mention a few. There is an incipient urge in southern Oregon to spin off, and in concert with northen California, form a separate state called “Shasta.” That’s even wilder than what the current mayor of South Portland has proposed!
Progressive Democrats are a distinct minority here. Letters to the local “Daily Courier” reflect deep seated naysayer opinions on just about any subject. This area impresses me as hard scrabble living. Affordable housing is present in greater amounts than in Maine simply because the housing units are small and cheaply built. That contrasts with northern Oregon, especially in the Portland region, where some outstanding housing developments are burgeoning. The state’s leading newspaper reflects this contrast in its coverage of the vibrant life of metropolitan Portland. The lively letters to the editor in “The Oregonian” testify to this. I have never seen a letter from anyone in southern Oregon published there. It’s as if we don’t exist here in “six pack” Oregon.
But I must admit that the unenrolled, cranky-oriented voters, both in Maine and Oregon, determine the character of the political landscape. Barack Obama may change that, but the knives are already out in view to cut him down to size. We will see.
On the environmental front Maine is clearly, in my opinion, considerably ahead. In my county here, (Josephine County) shortcuts in planning have severely damaged some of the area’s best environment.
To top this off, cost cutting moves, made by arrogant and dominant commissioners and supervisors, have resulted in the canceling of the entire public library system as well as some sorely needed social services. Mainers may be contrary, but their sense of social justice does prevail. We need that here.
But there is here a generally joyful outlook, if day to day human contact is a guide. People are friendly, outgoing and thoughtful. But that doesn’t seem to percolate into the political domain. Still, the climate is conducive to better relationships. People are out and about; fairs, bazaars, markets abound. Every weekend has some annual event happening. I am enjoying a pleasant season of gardening and my daily walks with our dog, Molly, put me in contact with a variety of good neighbors.
That’s helpful because my climb up the ageing ladder gets me closer to disabilities, like a recent revelation that I have type 2 diabetes. That is under control and my wife Kathy hews to a clever and creative diet schedule. I am also undergoing some eye surgery for cataract removal, which should improve my golf game (and my spirits)!
There is no real best of all worlds, I am sure. But as I mentally meld the best of Maine and Oregon I may get closer and closer. I do yearn for a visit to South Portland, but $5 a gallon for gas and a worsening national airline service precludes a return visit. But thanks to the Internet and the print media we have each other. Let’s hope for better times.
Dick Bernard is a former South Portland resident who now makes his home in Oregon.



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Now that the protracted Democratic primary season is finished, I feel it’s time to review my Maine to Oregon saga complete with new insights, not just political but all across the spectrum of life in general.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:040b4243-16aa-4f65-9425-d6b4d9ce5f6bSentry Editor2008-06-23T08:39:41Z2008-06-23T08:38:00ZThe local fire department managed to save the garage, and had to spray down another house – owned by my in-laws – not 500 feet away to keep it from bursting into flames. Some charred framework was all that was left of the main house by morning.
My wife’s grandfather grew up in the two-story building. He and his wife lived there for generations before they traded living spaces with their son, who took the house and moved them into an appropriately-sized apartment for two seniors with limited mobility. My wife grew up in a house just down the hill from the burned building, and reacted as if her parents home had gone up in flames too.
She happened to be going home this week, and described the scene “as if it were a dream.” For her, that building was more than a house; it was a symbol of home, it reminded her of her own childhood and I would even say it was a part of her.
I only knew the place as the house up the hill from my in-laws. I had seen it change owners from her grandparents to her uncle and I went to a few family gatherings in the backyard. While I’m not as affected by the loss of the building as my wife or her family, I can relate to the sick feeling you get in your stomach when something you knew as a child is no longer there.
When I was a kid, I used to watch my mother, grandmother and several aunts jam themselves into a small hallway that served as the pantry for my grandparent’s house on Louds Island. They cursed the design of that kitchen until my grandfather finally had a contractor knock down the walls and install new appliances to create a kitchen my entire extended family fits into.
About the same time they were renovating the kitchen, several of my aunts and cousins moved away, found jobs and some even started families of their own. Part of me would gladly trade the now spacious and often empty modern kitchen for that small, crowded, grimy pantry full of laughing family members.
To get to their island house, we used to take a 1969 Chevrolet Suburban with oversized tires, no brakes and a clutch that had a habit of sticking, up a hill, and through a forest. My cousins and I would line up on the bench seats to watch the tree branches eerily scrape down the sides of the truck. Inevitably, a rock would reach up from the road and tap the bottom of the rear axle halfway up the hill, causing my grandfather to burst into obscenities, sending us into fits of laughter.
A couple of years ago my grandfather bought a John Deer Gator, and the old suburban has sat quietly behind the barn ever since, the green paint my father and I applied with house brushes slowly peeling off its rusted panels.
Like my wife’s house on the hill, the crowded kitchen and old suburban gave me the memories that help me know who I am and where I came from.
Losing the things we knew as children, whether it be a house, a favorite pet or possession or even something as small as a Christmas stocking isn’t easy, but I think rising above the nostalgia and rebuilding for the next generation is a large part of growing up.
                                                                         -Nate Jones


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Last week, my uncle-in-law’s house burned to the ground. Thankfully he was alone in the house and woke up when the smoke alarm went off. He managed to call the fire department and get outside before the fire spread to the rest of the house.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:a41702e6-face-429b-9c9a-7948039fdcecSentry Editor2008-06-23T08:38:34Z2008-06-23T08:31:00ZI want to use this opportunity to thank all the Democratic voters who took the time to vote for me in the June 10 Democratic primary election. I truly appreciate the votes, and your willingness to make me your candidate for the Maine State Senate.
No candidate can do the work by themselves, and I had a great team of volunteers from South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth helping me put up campaign signs, knock on doors, arrange programs and events, and write notes. That team (and you know who you are!) is terrific, and I thank them for taking time out of their busy lives to help me run my campaign.
Please take some time in the next few days and give me a hand collecting my signs! If you have one in your yard, or see one or two near your home, please collect them and stick them in your garage or basement and then email me to let me know that you have them (Lawrence.Bliss@gmail.com). That would be great.
Thank you again for your confidence in me, and your willingness to let me represent you in Augusta. I hope you’ll continue to keep me informed of your views as we move toward the November election.
Larry Bliss, candidate
Maine State Senate, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough



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I want to use this opportunity to thank all the Democratic voters who took the time to vote for me in the June 10 Democratic primary election. I truly appreciate the votes, and your willingness to make me your candidate for the Maine State Senate.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:13458659-2f51-4617-aa88-472c408ccef3Sentry Editor2008-06-23T08:31:44Z2008-06-23T08:30:00ZSomeone recently wrote to the local paper complaining of the noise made by the ice cream truck!
At 93, I can no longer run out to the curb at the lilting sound of music from the ice cream truck. However, it does make me feel like a bud that has just burst into flower.
When I was a small child living in another city, street vendors were common. The “Banana Man,” the “Rag Man,” whose bushy beard scared me into the house and best of all was the “Hulled Corn Man.” He ladled portions of the corn into our bowls and we ate it while it was hot with thick cream. Alas, hulled corn is available no more.
Don’t deny kids the excitement of the ice cream man. In this troubled world he gives us a sense of permanence. His product may not measure up to superior brands of ice cream, but it still tastes better because of the circumstances in which it is consumed.
Beatrice Comas
South Portland


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Someone recently wrote to the local paper complaining of the noise made by the ice cream truck!

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-23:1740d760-9751-4b76-8d50-32e8048d8ab2Sentry Editor2008-06-23T08:30:51Z2008-06-23T08:29:00ZI realize the loose dog issue comes to a boiling point every year and then quickly gets pushed to the back burner, but it’s time the city of South Portland tackles this issue once and for all before someone’s child really gets hurt. My young child and I were victims of a pack of dogs early this morning. Luckily serious injury was avoided. We tried to enjoy a morning walk on Willard Beach before school when out of the blue, my daughter was clobbered by a large dog running full speed in a pack mentality (meaning the dog was completely out of voice command as are all dogs in a pack mentality, a common problem the city chooses to ignore). My child had the wind knocked right out of her, and she had to sit there with her school clothes all muddy (wet dogs, of course) while she tried to catch her breath.
What is it with South Portland and dogs? Three years ago, my daughter was jumped on by a German Shepard while exploring Hinkley Park. I was bitten by the same dog trying to defend my daughter. The dog’s owner was nowhere to be seen. Like this recent experience, we never saw it coming as we were trying to enjoy the natural surroundings. My daughter has never dared to visit Hinkley Park since, and now I fear Willard Beach shares the same fate. So I ask: Why must dogs and their owners get all the prime park land in the city? I imagine there are a lot of families in South Portland who do not enjoy our parks because of all the loose dogs. We are now one of those families. The few are getting preferential treatment over the many.
I’m sure I will get a lot of negative feedback from people who believe their dog would never behave like what my daughter and I experienced. But we must remember, when salmonella is found in a few tomatoes, we remove all tomatoes. The same must apply to dogs. When you get dogs into a pack on the beach or they run wild in the woods, dogs naturally get predatory, and accidents have and will continue to happen. Whose child will be the next victim?
I know the citizens of South Portland deserve at least one park where dogs are not allowed. The obvious choice is Willard Beach as enforcement would be easiest. A visible officer is the best deterrent. To compensate, why not turn the park across from the police station into a dog run? It is huge, and gets very little use. It’s time for our elected officials to show a little backbone and settle this issue once and for all. No more vague and un-enforceable voice command laws. Get the dogs under control in this city before someone’s child gets seriously injured.
Brian Allen
South Portland




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I realize the loose dog issue comes to a boiling point every year and then quickly gets pushed to the back burner, but it’s time the city of South Portland tackles this issue once and for all before someone’s child really gets hurt.

tag:blog.southportlandsentry.com,2008-06-13:c01f2fe5-e235-49c3-9dab-290938f65c1eSentry Editor2008-06-13T09:12:35Z2008-06-13T09:11:00ZStaff Writer
Cape Elizabeth schools may receive additional funding for their school budget, based on results from Tuesday’s referendum.
As of Wednesday morning, voting results show almost 1,900 voters rejected a 4.6 percent budget increase from last year – with more than 1,600 residents said they found the proposed $19.7 million school budget to be too low.
Town Councilor Sara Lennon, who has supported a school board-approved 6 percent increase throughout the process, said she was not surprised a majority of residents disapproved of the proposed budget.
“Yesterday a super majority of voters sent a public rebuke to the town council with a very clear message: ‘We want first-rate schools. Please put the school board’s requested 6 percent budget out to vote!’” Lennon said.
Councilor Mary Ann Lynch said she was not surprised either.
“I’m happy to have received such a definitive message from the voters.” She said.
Maine Department of Education Direct