St. Lawrence University, in Canton, New York, congratulates more than 730 students named to the dean’s list for the Fall 2023 semester. To be eligible for the Dean’s List, a student must have completed at least four courses and have an academic average of 3.6 based on a 4.0 scale for the semester.
Kennebec Water District is pleased with the early season progress on the Pleasant Street Area Water Main Improvements Project, in Waterville. Phase one work on Pleasant Street between Main Street and North Street is scheduled to be completed and reopened to traffic on or before Friday, May 3.
Upon completion of Phase 1 (estimated to be Monday May 6), work will move to part one of phase two which will include replacement of the water main on Pleasant Street between North Street and Gilman Street. Northbound traffic on Pleasant Street will be detoured to Elm Street via Park Street. Southbound traffic will be allowed to travel as normal. This work is anticipated to take four weeks to complete.
Any questions regarding the Pleasant Street Area Water Main Improvements project can be directed to KWD’s Project Engineer, Max Kenney at 207-872-2763.
Young Mainers looking for help navigating their next step have a new opportunity to take free four- to six-week classes at Maine’s community colleges this summer under a new “Summer Academy” program offered by the colleges and nonprofit education partner JMG.
Summer Academy is open to JMG students ranging from high school seniors up to age 24 who do not have immediate plans to work or go to college. Students pay no tuition and select an area of study, including, but not limited to, cybersecurity, welding, criminal justice, phlebotomy, manufacturing technology, and emergency medical services.
Students who complete the program earn a JMG Career Exploration Badge and $500, and for certain programs, students earn an industry recognized credential of value.
“We saw incredible success with last year’s pilot project, said Dan Belyea, chief workforce development officer for the Maine Community College System (MCCS).
The Summer Academy is a collaboration between JMG and the MCCS’ Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce, which oversees short-time workforce training programs at Maine’s community colleges. It will serve 500 JMG students over the next two years.
According to Maine Department of Education data, 43 percent of Maine high school graduates in 2022 did not plan to go to college. The Summer Academy gives the students an immersive, guided experience to quickly upskill and become qualified for some of Maine’s most in-demand occupations.
To learn more about the Summer Academy, contact Octavie Nkama at onkama@mccs.me.edu.
East Vassalboro Grange
Vassalboro Open Mic and Coffeehouse at the East Vassalboro Grange Hall Saturday, May 11, 7 – 9 p.m. Everyone is welcome to perform or to enjoy. Might you be a musician who might enjoy a place to share your talent? This could be the perfect place to try out the neighborhood stage. Bring your friends and family. $3 – $5 suggested donation. Coffee, tea, and goodies for sale. FMI: grange322@gmail.com.
by Mary GrowChina Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee members found only one of two applications submitted to their April 29 meeting met the requirements for TIF funding.
Both requests, from the South China public library and The Town Line newspaper, were submitted under Project C.3 in China’s TIF plan, titled “Marketing the Town as a Business Location.”
Committee members recommended funding for The Town Line, but not for the South China library.
Committee member Jamie Pitney was unsure why either qualified as an example of marketing. Both are valuable assets to the town, he said, but neither does any active marketing; “they just sit there.”
After discussion among committee members and Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood, a majority agreed that some of what the newspaper does, without charging the town, could count as marketing. They mentioned the unpaid advance publicity for major events like China Days in August and China Ice Days in February, and the weekly lists of town events.
They therefore recommended to the select board a $3,000 appropriation for The Town Line operations. The vote was 4-0-1; Pitney abstained, saying he would like the town attorney’s opinion before making a decision.
The library’s request for $30,000 to complete work on its new building, at 27 Jones Road, was received with sympathy. “Nobody wants to make a motion to turn down a library,” Pitney commented.
Committee members tried to fit the request into some category eligible for TIF money, but they failed. They voted unanimously not to recommend TIF funding for the library.
As Pitney pointed out, TIF disbursements are governed by the state’s economic-development-based standards. The local committee’s options are therefore limited.
China’s current TIF document was approved by town voters on June 8, 2021, and by the state Department of Economic and Community Development on Nov. 18, 2021. Pitney suggested it is time for the committee to consider revisions. These could include recommending removing programs that are no longer used, adding programs included in updated state TIF standards and reallocating funding.
Committee members scheduled work sessions to consider revisions for 6 p.m., Monday, May 13; Wednesday, May 29; and Monday, June 10.
An amended TIF document would need approval by China voters, perhaps at the Nov. 5 elections, and by the state.
Joan Chaffee, of Clinton, photographed this spectacular eclipse of the sun on April 8, 2024.
For these five high school seniors, the Kennebec Valley Youth Symphony Orchestras have been a place to grow, to build friendships, and to nurture their passion for music. This Spring, they are preparing for their final concert before heading off to college, on Mothers Day, May 12, 5 p.m., at the South Parish Church, in Augusta.
“I was such a rascal,” says Sophia Scheck with a rueful grin. “I didn’t just learn music, I learned to make friends, and sometimes how to lose them, and that’s okay.”
– Waterville High School senior Sophia Scheck
Sophia Scheck
“I was such a rascal,” says Sophia Scheck with a rueful grin. Scheck, a senior at Waterville High School, plays the viola (which is similar to a violin but a little bigger with slightly different strings). “Pineland Suzuki (school) has affected my life in so many ways,” she says. “I didn’t just learn music, I learned to make friends, and sometimes how to lose them, and that’s okay.” Scheck hopes to head for the Boston Conservatory next year to major in viola performance.
Carolyn Phelps Scholz
Carolyn Phelps Scholtz, a senior at the Ecology Learning Center, a public charter high school in Unity, plays the fiddle and has found her musical experience incredibly rewarding. “I’m still playing music with people that I started playing with when I was four,” she says. “We’ve grown up together, as people and musicians, and we’ll always have that.”
Diana Estes
Diana Estes is a homeschooler and has spent her life playing music and singing with her parents and six siblings. In her sixth year playing the cello, she sat as principal cellist in the Mid-Maine Youth Orchestra and now holds that place in the Kennebec Valley Youth Symphony. In 2023, she won the Anna Bereziuk and Lindley Wood Prize for Ensemble Endeavors in the Bay Chamber Prizewinner’s Competition. Outside of music, she is a devoted student, book enthusiast and soccer player. She has been accepted to Cedarville University, in Ohio, as a cello performance major, where she plans to double-major in biology before heading to medical school on her way to becoming a chiropractor. “I almost gave up playing cello in August 2021,” she admits. “I was prepared to sell my instrument, but my parents encouraged me to continue for just one more week, so I did. Three years later I’m on my way to college for cello, something I used to not like! The community and friendships built during my time at Pineland Suzuki School have been invaluable to me.”
Eben Buck
Silas Bartol
Eben Buck, who attends Cony High School, in Augusta, and Silas Bartol, from Maranacook High school, the remaining seniors in the orchestra, have been friends since childhood. “I still laugh about the “time Silas Bartol stuck his finger in Eben’s ear on stage during a rehearsal,” says Buck’s mother. “Eben calmly took Silas’ finger out of his ear and stuck Silas’ hand in his own pocket. They were four or five years old.”
The KV Youth Symphony Orchestras are a nonprofit initiative spearheaded by the Pineland Suzuki School of Music, in Manchester, with the aim of bringing the string musicians of the Suzuki school together with other local students of wind, brass and percussion instruments for a complete orchestral experience. Their May concert will feature music selections from Mozart’s Violin Concerto #3, Brahms’ Variations on a theme by Haydn, Bizet’s L’Arlesian Suite #2, among other pieces.
For more information about their upcoming concert or to find out how to enroll a student in the program, please visit their website at www.kvyso.org.
For good health and strong teeth, treat your gums well.(NAPSI)—Building a great smile starts with a strong foundation. While gums are often overlooked unless they are bleeding or causing mouth pain, they are the key to good oral health, overall physical health and the best grin you can imagine.
“Adopting a healthy lifestyle includes maintaining optimal oral health. Practicing good oral care daily includes brushing teeth regularly twice a day, flossing, and using an antiseptic mouthwash,” said Nadia M. Fugate, DMD, Delta Dental of Washington’s senior dental consultant. “Regular professional dental cleanings on a schedule recommended by your dentist also play a crucial role in preventing gum disease.”
More than half of all Americans suffer from gum disease, and many don’t even know they have it because there isn’t necessarily pain involved. Gum disease is linked to glaucoma, heart disease, high blood pressure, pneumonia and other respiratory tract infections and more. People with gum disease have a 49% higher chance of contracting heart disease than those who don’t have issues with their gums.
Per the Centers for Disease Control, 47.2% of adults aged 30 or older have a form of gum disease. It increases with age, as 70.1% of adults 65 and over have periodontal disease. That’s why proper gum care and knowing the signs of gum disease are so important.
Gingivitis is a mild form of gum disease which can generally be reversed with treatment and good oral hygiene.
Periodontitis is an advanced form of gum disease which is not reversible and can only be managed to prevent it from getting worse.
Gum disease can lead to an inflammatory response caused by buildup of bacteria on the teeth and around the gums. The buildup, commonly known as plaque and tarter, causes your gums to become swollen, painful and bleed easily.
Advanced gum disease can cause a loss of bone mass in and around the tooth socket and jawbone, which ultimately can lead to teeth becoming loose, falling out or needing to be extracted.
Ways to prevent gum disease
• Brush for two minutes, twice a day
• Floss at least once a day
• Schedule regular dental checkups and cleanings
• Have a healthy diet, limiting sugary food and drinks
• Avoid tobacco use
• Replace your toothbrush every three to four months
For more information on experiencing dental issues while traveling, visit Delta Dental of Washington’s blog at www.deltadentalwa.com.
by Peter Cates
Gerard Robicaud
Novelist Gerard Robichaud (1908-2008) was born in Québec, moved with his parents to Lewiston as a child, returned to Québec at 18 to study for the priesthood and practice writing stories during his spare time, but then left the priesthood to return to Lewiston in 1928 and over the next twenty years began developing further as a writer .
Maine Speaks contains a chapter, The Bad One, from Robichaud’s 1961 novel Papa Martel which easily stands on its own as a short story. The setting is a 1920s mill town, Groveton (strongly resembling Lewiston) and depicts a French Canadian family living in a very crowded apartment.
A local priest talks the parents into taking in a 17-year-old orphaned girl who’s been very difficult to manage. What gives this story a special quality is how the situation unfolds in a most unusual manner; how again people are so seldom what they seem; and how clouds have surprising silver linings.
The orphan Bad One Sophia ends up engaging the family and community in a most endearing manner while there are the elements of sly humor, local color, snappy dialog and unspoken attitudes that are the meat and potatoes of any good story.
In an interview, Robichaud summed up his own approach as a writer- “I wanted people to be better than they were after they read the story.”
A choice four lines of dialog between the family patriarch Louis and the priest Father Lebois before the parents make any decision:
“And this little girl?” Louis asked. “How old is she?”
“Just seventeen,” said Father Lebois sadly, “and already the boys chase her. It’s a pity, but she’s also very beautiful. “
“At seventeen,” Louis murmured, “everybody is beautiful.”
Tony Williams
Tony Williams (1928-1992) was lead singer for the Platters from 1953 to 1959 and contributed to the group’s extraordinary success with such hits as The Great Pretender and Jerome Kern’s Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
In 1957 as a solo singer, he recorded a seven-inch 45 (Mercury 71158) of two selections – Let’s Start All Over Again; and When You Return, its melody being that of Danny Boy/Londonderry Air. And they were vocally top notch doo wop style arrangements.
James Cagney
White Heat is a 1949 film noir classic starring James Cagney (1899-1986) as the psychopathic gangster Cody Jarrett, Margaret Wycherly (1881-1956) as the equally formidable Ma Jarrett and a superb supporting cast that included Virginia Mayo, Steve Cochrane, Edmund O’Brien, Fred Clark etcs. and astutely directed by Raoul Walsh.
Fritz Kreisler
Two acoustically recorded 12-inch shellacs present two violinists who shared the same birthday of February 2 and exchanged greeting cards.
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1963) recorded Dvorak’s Humoresque (Victor Red Seal 74180) in 1919 and played with his justly famed unique delicacy and exquisite lyricism. In 1947, he closed his violin case for good.
Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) recorded Sarasate’s splendid virtuoso piece Introduction and Tarentelle (Victrola Red Seal 74626) the previous year at the age of 17 and even then displayed the total technical and musical supremacy as possibly the greatest violinist who ever lived. Itzhak Perlman once commented that Heifetz again and again could do bowings and phrasing that he and other violinists could never do.