LEGAL NOTICES for Thursday, January 2, 2019

STATE OF MAINE
PROBATE COURT
COURT ST.,
SKOWHEGAN, ME
SOMERSET, ss
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
18-A MRSA sec. 3-801

The following Personal Representatives have been appointed in the estates noted. The first publication date of this notice December 26, 2019

If you are a creditor of an estate listed below, you must present your claim within four months of the first publication date of this Notice to Creditors by filing a written statement of your claim on a proper form with the Register of Probate of this Court or by delivering or mailing to the Personal Representative listed below at the address published by his name, a written statement of the claim indicating the basis therefore, the name and address of the claimant and the amount claimed or in such other manner as the law may provide. See 18-A MRSA 3-804.

2019- 379 – Estate of PHYLLIS L. KEENE, late of Skowhegan, Me deceased. Teshia N. Cates, 58 Dawes Street, Skowhegan, Me 04976 and Sean M. Cates, 40 Naomi Avenue, Madison, Me 04950 appointed Co-Personal Representatives.

2019-383 – Estate of DOROTHY CHARLENE DUNPHY, late of Pittsfield, Me deceased. James D. Dunphy, 122 Lincoln Street, Pittsfield, Me 04967 AND Colleen D. Martin, 223 Hamilton Ter. Pittsfield, Me 04967 appointed Co-Personal Representatives.

2019-385 – Estate of ANN V. FITZPATRICK, late of Skowhegan, Me deceased. William J. Fitzpatrick, 15 Sweet Avenue, Pawtucket, RI 02861-2144 appointed Personal Representative.

2019-387 – Estate of JAMES VICTOR RASMUSSEN, late of Cornville, Me deceased. Margaret Rasmussen, 1255 West Ridge Road, Cornville, Me 04976 appointed Personal Representative.

2019-388 – Estate of JEFFERY D. SALLEE, late of St. Albans, Me deceased. David Sallee, 15 Ventura Street, Lewiston, Me 04240 appointed Personal Representative.

2019-389 – Estate of ELIZABETH D. CURTIS, late of Pittsfield, Me deceased. Dianne Roy, 115 Davis Street, Pittsfield, Me 04967 appointed Personal Representative.

2019-171 – Estate of RAYMOND L. FRANCOEUR, late of Bingham, Me deceased. Darryl L. Francoeur, 61 Litchfield Road, Freeport, Me 04032 appointed Personal Representative.

2019-353 – Estate of PERLEY R. HINKLEY, SR., late of New Portland, Me deceased. Janet Grover, 583 Bog Road, New Portland, Me 04961 appointed Personal Representative.

To be published on December 19, 2019 & January 2, 2020.

Dated: December 12, 2019 /s/ Victoria Hatch,
Register of Probate
(1/2)

STATE OF MAINE
PROBATE COURT
41 COURT ST.
SOMERSET, ss
SKOWHEGAN, ME
PROBATE NOTICES

TO ALL PERSONS INTERESTED IN ANY OF THE ESTATES LISTED BELOW

Notice is hereby given by the respective petitioners that they have filed petitions for appointment of personal representatives in the following estates. These matters will be heard at 10 a.m. or as soon thereafter as they may be January 8, 2020. The requested appointments may be made on or after the hearing date if no sufficient objection be heard. This notice complies with the requirements of 18-A MRSA §3-403 and Probate Rule 4.

2019-380 – Estate of VICTORIA JOLEEN DEERING. Petition for Change of Name (Adult) filed by Victoria Joleen Deering, PO Box 34, Canaan, Me 04924 requesting her name be changed to Victoria Joleen Richards for reasons set forth therein.

Dated: December 12, 2019 /s/ Victoria Hatch,
Register of Probate
(1/2)

THE MONEY MINUTE – Pensions: Do I take the lump sum or monthly payment?

by Jac M. Arbour CFP®, ChFC®, President
J.M. Arbour Wealth Management

For those of you who need to choose a pension payout option, you might agree that the task can seem confusing. In this month’s article, I will share eight key considerations when making this decision.

Terms of the Lump Sum: One must compare the amount of the lump sum to the value of the payments over an estimated period of time (life expectancy). Many people are tempted to take the lump sum, but it is important to note that this may not always be the best choice.

Interest Rates: In low interest rate environments (like right now), the higher the lump sum payout is likely to be. Once the tides turn, so will the lump sum amount.

Life Expectancy: If you have medical issues and do not have longevity, a lump sum may be the best choice. On the flip side, someone who might live well into their 90s could be a strong candidate for the pension payments.

Financial Stability: If the plan sponsor is weak, the lump sum looks more attractive. People often mention the backing of the PBGC, but with its own financial problems, the PBGC may not have the ability or the legal obligation to insure your full amount.

Market Risk: Once a person takes the lump sum, the risk (totally) and performance (somewhat) are in your hands. You will want to consider what type of income you can create with the lump sum and its relativity to the pension payout amounts.

Taxation: You can rollover the lump sum to an IRA, but monthly pension payments you cannot. Therefore, your desire for tax deferral is something to consider.

Habits: Are you the type to spend money if you have access to it or are you a saver and investor? The person with financial discipline will likely prove to be the better person to receive a lump sum.

Beneficiaries: Many people feel as though they have more flexibility to pass money to their heirs by taking the lump sum. If you have a spouse or heirs, the above considerations apply to them as well.

Here is what I promise: All you can do is make the best decision with the information you have. Therefore, it is your job to get all the information before making the decision.

See you all next month.

Jac Arbour CFP®, ChFC®

Jac Arbour is the President of J.M. Arbour Wealth Management and can be reached at 207-248-6767.

Investment advisory services are offered through Foundations Investment Advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser.

Six quick tips from Car Care Council for winter driving

(NAPSI)—When it comes to winter car care, many motorists tend to think of antifreeze and batteries—but vehicles need extra attention in winter, especially when the temperatures drop.

“Making sure your vehicle is properly prepared for all of winter’s elements will help you avoid the aggravation of an unplanned road emergency,” says Rich White, executive director, Car Care Council.

The nonprofit Car Care Council offers six quick tips to help your vehicle perform at its best during cold weather months:

  1. Keep the gas tank at least half full; this decreases the chance of moisture forming in the gas lines and possibly freezing.
  2. Check the tire pressure, including the spare, as tires can lose pressure when temperatures drop. Consider special tires if snow and ice are a problem in your area.
  3. Have the exhaust system checked for carbon monoxide leaks, which can be especially dangerous during cold weather driving when windows are closed.
  4. Allow your car a little more time to warm up when temperatures are below freezing, so that the oil in the engine and transmission circulate and get warm.
  5. Change to low-viscosity oil in winter as it will flow more easily between moving parts when it is cold. Drivers in sub-zero temperatures should drop their oil weight from 10-W30 to 5-W30, as thickened oil can make it hard to start the car.
  6. Consider using cold weather washer fluid and special winter windshield blades if you live in a place with especially harsh winter conditions.

Drivers should also stock an emergency kit with an ice scraper and snowbrush, jumper cables, flashlight, blanket, extra clothes, bottled water, dry food snacks and needed medication. In addition, the Car Care Council recommends a thorough vehicle inspection by a trusted professional service technician, as winter magnifies existing problems such as pings, hard starts, sluggish performance or rough idling.

The Car Care Council is the source of information for the “Be Car Care Aware” consumer education campaign promoting the benefits of regular vehicle care, maintenance and repair to consumers. To order a free copy of the popular Car Care Guide, visit the council’s consumer education website at www.carcare.org.

I’M JUST CURIOUS: January thoughts

by Debbie Walker

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, at the new year said, “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let each new year find you a better man.” That was his thought.

My thought of the new year is a fresh start. It reminds me of the term “clean slate.” The saying comes from the slate boards used in schools years ago. Each day the “slate” started out clean. These days it usually means a fresh start; another chance to wipe out old offenses.

I would like to remind us all that each and every day is a new start, a new slate. So if you feel you fell short on your resolutions, just remember, the next new day is coming.

For some of us the new year begins on January 1 with the resolutions and in Maine it falls in cold, winter weather. There are others of us whose new year doesn’t start until the winter is gone and the sun shines warm and summer is beginning to bloom with greens and colors.

I found the following poem in the Farmer’s Almanac’s 200 Anniversary Collection. It is from 1871:

Farewell and Welcome

Go, winter, go!
The frozen locks and tresses white
And looks that kindle not delight
and breaths that chill the young heart’s glow
And frowns that make the tear drop start
No bliss, no pleasure can impart
Go, winter. Go!

Come, summer, come!
With genial skies and budding flowers
and balmy gales and fragrant showers
and smiles that clothe the earth in flowers
Come with thy bright and fairy band
and scatter gladness o’er the land!
Come, summer, come!

Freezing Help

Okay, well, winter is happening no matter what our personal thoughts. I found these tips in a magazine for helping you with icy walkways:

Baking Soda: Sprinkle over icy walks and stairs. It will speed up the melting.

Vinegar: Mix equal parts of vinegar and water for a de-icer to melt surfaces including your windshield.

DIY Ice Melt: 2 qts warm water, 6 drops dish liquid, 2 oz. rubbing alcohol. Spray over walkways for easier shoveling.

90 Percent Rubbing alcohol: I used this on my windshield in Maine. Put it in spray bottle and I sprayed my windshield, walked around the car, sprayed the windows. The windshield was clear. You can leave the spray bottle in your vehicle. It won’t freeze.

Tarp: cover the area, car or walkway. You can shovel off or shake off depending on the snow or ice that you get.

Extra traction: Use clean kitty litter, wood ash from stove or fireplace, or even bird seed (the birds will love you!).

Frost-free mirrors: Cover side mirrors with plastic bags. To attach just use clothes pins.

I am finishing this with these words:

Just for today, I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fill with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine. (by Dear Abby)

I’m just curious what unique thoughts you have for 2020. Contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com with questions or comments. Thank you for reading!!

REVIEW POTPOURRI – Movie: The Highwaymen (2019)

Woody Harrelson and Kevin Costner in Netflix’s The Highwaymen (2019).

Peter Catesby Peter Cates

The Highwaymen

starring Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, Kim Dickens, William Sadler, Kathy Bates etc.; 2019 film. Can be seen on Netflix.

One of the more disturbing elements of cinema, and contributing a little to society’s desensitizing during the last 50 years, has been the stylizing of violence with humor, sophistication, exquisite cinematography etc.

Arthur Penn’s 1968 Bonnie and Clyde, with its transformation of these two cold-blooded killers into likable Robin Hood media stars, could arguably be considered a starting point. Since then, movie audiences have been subjected to such viewing experiences as Marathon Man, Nightmare on Elm Street, Pulp Fiction, the Kill Bills and such cable series as The Sopranos, and Dexter.

Now maybe things have come a little full circle with The Highwaymen. Starring Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson and a most distinguished supporting cast, this film depicts the historical pursuit and awarding of ultimate justice to the pair by former Texas Rangers, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault. It was released this past March 15 to cinemas only for two weeks and then to Netflix on March 29.

Kim Dickens

The film begins with Bonnie and Clyde helping a few of their associates escape from the Eastham, Texas, Prison Farm, thus spurring Governor Ma Ferguson to reluctantly agree to calling in two “retired” Rangers Hamer and Gault to pursue the gang. It tracks the parallel, and often contentious, investigations between the two men and other forces of law, including J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. It also dramatizes their own inner personal issues and relationship with each other most vividly. And the close calls with the gang itself, particularly one high speed chase in a very dusty newly-plowed field, driving around in circles!

Two other performances stand out – Kim Dickens as Hamer’s wife, Gladys, pleading with her husband to return safely to her after it is all over and William Sadler as Clyde Barrow’s father, Henry, who talks about the kid his son used to be before he changed his character. Finally, the cinematography of the southwest Texas landscape that I got to know, during my 16 years of living in Houston, was very evocative in its spacious vistas and details .

Highly recommended!

2019 Central Maine Youth Hockey Association Yellow Mini Mites

Front row, from left to right, Bryson Pelotte, Jack Pelotte, Anderson Mcguire and Roman Kinsella. Back, Lydia Hussey, Coach Ashli Hussey, Owen Ment, Amelia Castonguay Tyler Fisher and Kien Mcdonald. Absent from photo, Evelyn Laws, Jace Lopez, Ella Gifford and Coach Micah Cram. (photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)

2019 Central Maine Youth Hockey Association U10 team

Front, Zaiden Thoopsamoot, left, and Michael Loubier. Back, from left to right, Assistant Coach Bryson Dostie, Jackson Hussey, Assistant Coach Ashli Hussey, Parker Doucette, Gavin Mushero, Eban Barbeau, Conner Mushero, Justin Cyr, Keon Stevens, Peyton Henning, Evan Stevens, Benjamin Labbe, Andrew Mayou Jr., Kristopher Finnemore, Abigail Webb and William Trainor. (photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)

It’s flu season 2019

by Nancy Bostrom

Flu is now widespread across nearly half the country and officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate there is good chance that flu activity could be at its peak.

While the number one way to protect yourself from catching the bug over the holidays is to get a flu vaccine, local physicians with American Family Care are spreading the word about ways you can avoid flu germs as the virus continues to spread like wildfire.

CONSIDER THIS ….

This time last flu season, only three states reported widespread flu. Today 23 states are reporting widespread flu.

In a recent media report, the National Foundation for Infection Diseases medical director Dr. William Schaffner says a B strain of influenza is dominant and this is “weird.”

Usually, we do not hear about B until the end of flu season, in early spring.

The “B virus” can infect anyone, generally strikes children and young adults more than the elderly.

Harvard University researchers say 20-30 percent of people carrying the flu virus do not have symptoms and they can spread flu germs to others up to six feet away!

It’s never too late to get a flu shot. It will not make you sick, it is a booster that helps your body fight off possible infection. The flu vaccine prevents death.

“Flu is a very contagious illness that we all should take very seriously this time of year,” says Dr. Benjamin Barlow, chief medical officer of American Family Care, the nation’s leading healthcare network with a local clinic. “The holiday season is a hot time for flu season because people are spending more time indoors together whether it be at a social gathering or because it is just too cold to go outside. Getting the flu shot and following a few habits to avoid flu germs can keep you healthy throughout the peak of the season.”

Nancy Bostrom is affliliated with the American Family Care group.

Hallees celebrate 50th wedding anniversary

Roland and Joan Hallee

Roland and Joan Hallee, of Waterville, were feted on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary at a celebration held at You Know Whose Pub, in Waterville, on November 22, 2019, with 60 family and friends in attendance. The occasion was planned by their children and grandchildren.

Roland Hallee and the former Joan Dechaine were married on November 29, 1969, at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, in Waterville, with the Rev. Raymond Picard officiating.

The Hallees have two children, Angela Hallee, of Waterville, and Ryan Hallee and his wife Rachel, of Rome.

They have five grandchildren, Kassandra Bisson and husband Blake, of Belgrade, Travis Brunette, of Pittsfield, Hallee Brunette, of Waterville, Hunter Hallee and Megan Hallee, both of Rome.

Mr. Hallee is currently the managing editor of The Town Line newspaper, in South China, a position he has held since 2005, after also being editor of the Valley Times, in Pittsfield, and the Somerset Gazette, in Skowhegan. He also worked for 19 years with the Waterville Morning Sentinel.

Mrs. Hallee is currently the receptionist at Corpus Christi Parish, in Waterville, after retiring from a 39-year career as an inside salesperson with the Waterville Morning Sentinel.

Roland is the son of the late Conrad and Ida May (Labbe) Hallee, and Joan is the daughter of the late Raymond and Lois (Beaulieu) Dechaine, and niece to the late Adrien and Simone Paradis.

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS: Take your competitor to lunch

Growing your businessby Dan Beaulieu
Business consultant

Welcome her to the neighborhood.

You are the fourth generation owner of a family-owned furniture store. Your great grandfather founded the business many years ago, and it has been part of your small city’s landscape ever since. The business is known for excellent quality, and service, and always making sure that the customer will not only keep coming back but will tell others about your store as well.

For the past few years, you have been hearing about the dreaded Big Box stores that are popping up all over the place. You’ve heard of other small family businesses being run into the ground, and forced to close their doors, because of the severe competitive challenges put upon them by these huge stores moving into their towns. It sounds like a nightmare!

Now one morning, as you drive to work, you go by the old baseball field where you used to play PAL baseball when you were a kid, and horrors! You see that someone has bought the lot and construction has started on a large building. When you slow down to see the sign on the temporary construction barriers, you see the name of one of those giant national furniture stores that will be coming to this very site and soon!

What do you do? Your heart is in your throat, and your stomach feels queasy. You are ready to quit right then and there, just plain throw in the towel. But no, you can’t do that. You think of everyone in your family who came before you, and worked so hard to make the business what it is today. So, what’s the plan? What can you do?

Well, according to Shep Hyken in his book: Amaze Every Customer Every Time, when the store opens you invite the manager to lunch, and welcome her to the neighborhood! You get to be friends with her. You talk to her, to find out what her store can do that your store cannot and vice versa.

According to Mr. Hyken, “Don’t demonize your competition. Learn what they do best. Knowing your competition can make you a better competitor…. Know your competition’s shortcomings and capitalize on them. Know your strengths and exploit them.”

It’s true that the big store can offer many more skews than you can. They have deeper buying pockets, so they can buy in huge quantities at better prices. And yes, they can take advantage of national marketing and name recognition. That’s all true and something you should take into consideration.

But here is what they can’t do. They cannot service a customer like you can. They do not, nor will they ever, have a close personal relationship with their customers. Where their customer service is weak, yours is strong. Where your customers’ loyalty is solid, theirs is very weak. While they sell products to a national audience, you can sell products to a regional customer base, a customer base that you have had almost one hundred years serving and learning about.

And you will always be an integral part of the community. When the kind ladies from the Methodist Church up the street drop in to see if you will contribute a gift certificate to be sold at their holiday fair’s silent auction, you can decide on the spot, while the big box store manager has to call corporate for permission.

If you think about it, you are in a great position to not only compete, but also thrive against that behemoth down the street. Just run a good business, with terrific customer service and you will have nothing to worry about. And, oh yes, take that big store manager to lunch and become friends and learn what she can do that you can’t and what you can do that she can’t and armed with that understand you’ll both end up sending customers to one another, and that’s a nice way to grow your business.