Covers towns roughly within 50 miles of Augusta.

LETTERS: It shouldn’t take a pandemic to underscore need for high speed internet

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by Pat Pinto
AARP Maine, Volunteer State President

It shouldn’t take a pandemic to underscore the importance of high-speed internet in our state. Rural Maine’s struggle with connectivity has been going on for years, but with COVID-19, the true consequences of slow or no internet can no longer be ignored.

During the last few months, residents throughout Maine have voiced their frustration. Paul Armstrong’s small business in Palermo is floundering because the internet service in his area is practically non-existent. Ray Smith of Windham, an occupational therapist for children with developmental and physical challenges, now counsels his young clients by video chat due to COVID-19. He describes many of the sessions as “disastrous” because some of his clients have such poor internet service. A retired teacher from Lewiston, Joyce Bucciantini, laments the learning divide between those students who have high speed internet and those who do not.
No matter where we live in Maine, and no matter our age, every Maine household should have access to high-speed internet.

The Maine Broadband Coalition, of which AARP Maine is a member, estimates that 85,000 households in our state have no access to high-speed internet. For many, this means they have little or no connection to family, friends, and critical services such as tele-medicine and counseling. For some, lack of high-speed internet creates barriers to doing business and creating jobs. Still others, particularly older Mainers, miss out on opportunities to offset loneliness, depression and isolation.

This is the time to take action, and I urge all Mainers to vote in the Maine State Primary and Special Referendum Election on July 14th, and to vote YES on Question 1. Question 1 is a ballot referendum providing $15,000,000 in funding for high-speed internet expansion to underserved and unserved areas. This will particularly impact rural areas of Maine that currently lack the infrastructure for high-speed internet. Of great significance is the fact that the $15M bond will be matched by $30 million in federal and other funds to triple the impact.

This is an opportunity not to be missed. Maine is a rural state with a far-flung population. If Maine invests now, we can help Mainers, particularly in rural areas, who don’t have access to reliable, high-speed internet service. It is essential for Mainers of all ages to be able to stay connected to friends and family, but it is equally important for them to be able to access their caregivers, doctors, and other health professionals. High-speed internet is a smart investment that will help businesses grow and help students gain access to education even when they are at home.

Access to high-speed internet is extremely important to daily life in Maine, and not just during the coronavirus pandemic. Support of this referendum will put Maine on the right track. I urge you to vote Yes on 1 on July 14.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide suspends service through 2020

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AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, the nation’s largest free, volunteer-based tax preparation and assistance service, has announced that State of Maine AARP Foundation Tax-Aide sites will not re-open in 2020.

In mid-March, due to COVID-19, the national AARP Foundation Tax-Aide office suspended tax preparation at all tax preparation locations throughout the country. Shortly thereafter, also because of COVID-19, the IRS extended the tax filing deadline from April 15 to July 15.

With the extended deadline, Tax-Aide volunteers in Maine worked together to try to find a way to safely reopen at least some of its tax preparation sites. However, with COVID-19 complications posing a risk to both older taxpayer clients and Tax-Aide volunteers, it has been decided that AARP Tax-Aide sites in Maine will not reopen in 2020.

The program will return in 2021, having had time to make all the modifications deemed necessary to ensure as much as possible the health and safety of both taxpayers and volunteers.

In the meantime, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide offers online options to assist taxpayers affected by the suspension of in-person services:

  • A self-prep option, providing taxpayers with free access to software so they can prepare taxes on they own, is available at aarpfoundation.org/preparing-your-taxes-online/
  • If taxpayers have a computer and printer and would like help completing their own taxes, they can request the assistance of a volunteer to coach them through the process via phone or computer screen-sharing. Taxpayers should visit org/forms/tax-prep-assistance-request.html to submit a request.

Although the ‘deadline’ for filing tax returns is usually April 15, taxpayers actually have up to three years to file their federal and state tax returns. As long as there is a refund or no tax due, there are no penalties for filing anytime within the three year period. The failure to file and failure to pay penalties are applied only when a return is filed late and money is owed.

Congratulations to area graduates — Class of 2020

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Carrabec High School

Emily Avery, Hunter Avery, Cassidy Ayotte, Anthony Berube, Isaac Boucher, Annika Carey, Ashley Cates, Summer Cole, Jacob Copeland, Caitlin Crawford, Shay Cyrway, Caroline Decker, Dominic Falk, Olivia Fortier, Joshua Foss, Paige Giroux, Olivia Gonio, Ricky Gordon, Ariel Guinn, Olivia Hassell, David Houle, Cheyanne Howard, Madison Jaros, Lemuel Kimball, Dylan Leach, Riley Maheu, Scott Mason, Mabel Mouland, Mary-Jenna Oliver, Colby Paquette, Kira Parent, Roy Pierce, Jasmyne Pray, Elijah Quimby, Abby Richardson, Damon Rogers, Cheyenne Sirois, Jayme Stafford, Sydney Steward, Cheyeanne Stubbs, Brandi Thibodeau, Ebony Walls, Dalton Way, Skye Welch, Jesiah Wilcox-Quimby, and Cameron Wooster.

Cony High School

Alimira Abdullah, Zina Ahmad, Nada Al Hoshan, Mohammad Al Jendi, Peter Allen, Hadeel Alsaleh, Abdulmajeed Al-Tameemi, Dakota Andow, Marian Arthur, Ashleigh Audet, Alexander Audette, David Barley, Sebastian Barron, Federico Barzasi, Hannah Beeckel, Gage Bernstein, Katherine Boston, Jordan Brooke, Jillian Brown, Logan Butler, Gabriella Campbell, Kaaleb Carey, Tyler Carr, Alexis Carter, Haylee Casey, Salemn Chapman, Paige Coaty-Neff, Sarah Cook-Wheeler, Riley Coombe, Jillian Coull, Joshua Crocker, Kaylee Cushing, Calvin Dacus, Jasmine Daly, Dakota Dearborn, Kody Demerchant, Isaiah Dodge, Anthony Donnarumma, Emily Douglas, Molly Dutil, Thomas Farris-Chason, Chloe Fleck, Jasmine French, Evan Galego, Jada Genest, Ian Gervais, Isaac Gichel-Curtis, Leighton Gidney, Ian Gifford, Crystal Gilber, Elsie Gin, Ashton Glockler, Kiara Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Megan Greaton, Cecilia Guadalupi, Jessica Guerrette, Mouaoeih Halwah, Ian Harden, Linda Hodgkins, Wyeth Houle, Emily Houston, Justin Huntley, Nathaniel Ieng, Timothy Johnson, Stephen Labbe, Benjamin LaPierre, Sophia LaPointe, Adrian Larrabee, Ryan Lathe, Faith Leathers-Pouliot, Cameran Letendre, Aaron Lettre, Carly Lettre, Emma Levesque, Meredith Lewis, Willow Longeree, Caleb MacFarland, Roger Mackbach, Joshua Martin, Iain McCollett, Lucas McCormick, Simon McCormick, Caleb McDougal, Courtney McFarland, Audrey McLaughlin, Samantha Melland, Abigail Merrill, Kameron Michaud, Gerald Moody, Caroline Mosca, Josephine Nutakki, Collin Osborne, Ayanna Osman, Renee Ouellette, Micayla Paquette, Marissa Parker, Abigail Pelletier, Nhasino Phan, Jillian Pion, Storm Plummer, Myles Quirion, Shakeera Radel, Ashleigh Redmond, Miranda Reichard, Mickayla Rheimer, Madison Riggs, Nathan Rivera Ayala, Jordan Robertson, Alexander Robinson, Natalie Rohman, Hannah Rouleau, Rebecca Smart, Aidan Smith, Karittha Sopasiri, Nathan Surette, Christopher Taylor, Devon Thomas, Kaley Trask, Mallory Turgeon, James Van Doren-Wilson, Sabrinna Vawter, Atlantis Veilleux, Jessy Veilleux, Linelys Velazquez, Arianna Vinal, Yasmine Wadleigh, Isaac Wallace, Proscha Ware, Nicholas Waterhouse, Haley Weston, Julie White, Sophia Whitney, Zachary Whitney, Joshua Wroten, Ayden Wyman and Devin Young.

Erskine Academy

Pedro Albarracin Nunez- Mera, Lucy Allen, Lucas Anderson, Jay Austin II, Alec Baker, Julia Basham, Derek Beaulieu, James Berto, Adam Bonenfant, Faith Bonnell, Zyashia Borrero, Ashlee Bossie, Yanic Boulet, Haley Breton, Alexander Buzzell, Kole-Tai Carlezon, Jacob Cater, David Chubbuck Jr, Bridget Connolly, Abigail Cordts, Samantha Couture, Summer Curran, Colby Cyr, Norah Davidson, Sean Decker, Dominic Denico, Lily DeRaps, Joshua Donahue II, Joshua Duggan, Michael Dusoe Jr, Dominick Dyer, Jacob Elsemore, Vincent Emery, Nathan Evans, Cheyann Field, Jasmine Fletcher, Jada Fredette, Mitchell Gamage, Alyssha Gil, Annika Gil, Lydia Gilman, Ella Giroux, Boe Glidden, Bryce Goff, Joshua Gower, Clara Grady, Tori Grasse, Ian Gundberg, Alyssa Hale, Emma Harvey, Nicholas Hayden, Jesse Hayes, Gage Henderson, Brayden Hill, Summer Hotham, Nicholas Howard, Julianna Hubbard, Ashley Huntley, Emily Jacques, Sarah Jarosz, Ricker Jean, Cameron Johnson, Colby Johnson, Kyle Jones, Luke Jordan, Zaria Kelly, Marisa Klemanski, Tristan Klemanski, Riley Kunesh, Brandon LaChance, Benjamin Lagasse, Benjamin Lavoie, Cole Leclerc, Eleena Lee, William Leeman, Desiree Leighton, Madison Leonard, Gabriel Lewis, Stephanie Libby, Jordan Linscott, Colby Loden, Sydney Lord, Brandon Loveland, Shawn Manning, William Mayberry II, Haymanot Maynard, Reece McGlew, Marissa McGraw, Lexigrace Melanson, Kaytie Millay, Grady Miller, Jakob Mills, Jamara Moore, Adalaide Morris, Krysta Morris, Nathaniel Mosher, Alecia Paradis, Joseph Peaslee Jr, Shelley Peaslee, Isaak Peavey, Chloe Peebles, Chandler Peele, Lyndsie Pelotte, Matthew Picher, Jareth Pierpont, Jasmine Plugge, Hunter Praul, Dalton Pushard, Miina Raag-Schmidt, Benjamin Reed, Hailei-Ann Reny, Jennifer Reny, Mitchel Reynolds, Andrew Robinson, Dominic Rodrigue, Michael Rogers, Katelyn Rollins, Alyssa Savage, Shawn Seigars, Serena Sepulvado, Santasia Sevigny, Nicholas Shelton, Danielle Shorey, Taylor Shute, Ryan Sidelinger, Alissa Sleeper, Kayla Sleeper, Dominic Smith, Samuel Smith, Lily Solorzano, Makenzi Strout, Matthew Stultz, James Sugden, Jacob Sutter, Audrey Swan, Nicole Taylor, Kobe Thomas, Courtney Tibbetts, Brandon Tibbs, Katelyn Tibbs, Kaitlyn Tims, Ashleigh Treannie, Hailee Turner, Cameron Tyler, Tanner Watson, Andrew Weymouth, Curtis Weymouth, Kayleigh Winam, Richard Winn, Wesley Wood and Amber Wysocki.

Lawrence High School

Ashley Allen, Mackenzie Allen, Raygen Alley, Colby Anderson, Alexis Armstrong, Riley Avery, Lindsay Bagley, Dakota Batchelder, Wyatt Belmont, Mathew Berry, Rilee Bessey, Brody Bickford, Nathan Bickford, Hannah Bilodeau, Hailey Bolduc, Tyler Bolduc, Alan Bourget, Colby Brann, Aaron Breton, Sydney Bridger, Eva Brisk, Lauren Buck, Brooke Butler, Ethan Caldwell, Kendra Campbell, Deleyni Carr, Madison Carrero, Journey Champagne, Abigail Charland, Alfred Cochrane, Ethan Cochrane, Samuel Coro, Evan Craig, Megan Curtis, Cody Dixon, Parker Doane, Dylan Donnell, Bryson Dostie, Dawson Drew, Victoria Dubay, Dylan Eldridge, Annabelle Emery, Abigail Fisher, Wyatt Fortin, Samantha Fuller, Victoria Fye, Kieara Garland, Skylah Grivois, Paige Hale, Tyler Hall, Harley Hamlin, Jacob Hamlin, Ricky Hamlion, Dylan Hardenburg, Alaina Haywood, Caitlin Hedman, Carson Jersey, Haley Hersey, Alaina Hood, Silvia Hoover, Sophia Hoover, Mackenzie Huard, Sumner Hubbard, Jeremiah Hunter, Kristin Jackson, Camron Jordan, Donovan Knapik, Miranda Lambert, Julie Lane, Kyle Languet, Storm Lavway, Nicholas Lawler, Allison Leary, Grace Leary, Tyler LeClair, Austin Leighton, Aubrey Levesque, Alexis Lewis, Erica Maillet, John Manzo, Cassandra Martin, Dylan Martin-Hachey, Joshua McFarland, Joseph McKinley, Kristin Morneau, Paul Morneau, Destiny Mulholland, Morgan Niles, Cassandra Noyes, Bailey Parlin, Jacob Patterson, Benjamin Pierce, Gabrielle Pierce, Isaac Plourde, Cheyenne Poulin, Benjamen Pressey, Brian Pressey, Kassey Pressey, Chase Quimby, Nathaniel Regalado, Brianna Rice, Mackenzie Roberts, Gain Robinson, Mary Robinson, Lydia Rogers, Hunter Roy, Michael Roy, Tucker Roy, Jacob Ryder, Emma Salisbury, Ranea Sapienza, Hailey Sargent, Colby Shorey, Isaish Shuman, Riley Sinclair, Breanna Sirois, Melaina Smith, Paul Southwick, Jayden Stephenson, Elsie Suttie, Jacob Suttie, David Thurlow, Abigail Towne, Lydia Townsend, Haley Trahan, Jacob Turlo, Cody Veilleux, Abbie Vigue, Kyle Walch, Amber Wescott, Savannah Weston, Liberty White, Emily Whitney, Haley Wilkie, Cassondra Wood and Gabriel York.

Madison Area Memorial High School

Chance Allen, Katrina Barney, Shelby Belanger, Graham Briggs, Nevaeh Burnham, Reid Campbell, Autumn Cates, Olivia Clough, Aaron Corson, Caleb Cowan, Isaiah Cyr, Stacy Depoala, Dawson Eanes, Emily Edgerly, Todd Edgerly, Caden Franzose, Aliya French, Dakota Hall, Glen Harrington IV, Chandra Holt, Lauria LeBlanc, Grace Linkletter, Carolyn McGray, Riley Merrill, Cianan Morris, Aidan O’Donnell, Izaiah Perkins, Lucy Perkins, Luke Perkins, Isabella Petrey, Roger Picard, Roland Picard, Evelyn Pisch, Skyelar Pollis, LeiLani Rexford, Abigail Spaulding, Jared Tozier, Mikayla Violet and Daxton Winchester and Kathryn Worthen.

Messalonskee High School

Alyson Albert, Nicholas Alexander, Connor Alley, Ava Ardito, Austin Arsenault, Abigayle Barney, Jennessey B aylis, Madison Beaulieu, Austin Bedsaul, Sami Benayad, Brianne Benecke, Taylor Bernier, Lauren Bourque, Rebecca Bourque, Lydia Bradfield, Andrew Brann, Sydney Brenda, Alexa Brennan, Ethan Burton, Hannah Butler, Salvatore Caccamo, Kaiya Charles, Tucker Charles, Patrick Chisum, Sadie Colby, William Cole, Connor Collins, Emma Concaugh, Bradley Condon, Abitail Corbett, Anne Corbett, Breanna Corbin, Ainsley Corson, Shiela Corson, Hunter Cote, Cameron Croft, Emily Crowell, Hannah Cummins, Dylan Cunningham, Lydia D’Amico, Austin Damren, Zachary Davis, Cassidy Day, Hannah DelGiudice, Jordan Devine, Kristen Dexter, Emma Di-Girolamo, Zachary DiPietro, TaylorJefferey Doone, Cooper Doucette, Haley Dunn, Benjamin Edman, Cade Ennis, Connor Evans, Andrew Everett, Nicolas Fontaine, Lauren Fortin, Joseph Fougere, Brennan Francis, Alexis Furbush, Amelia Gallagher, Austin Garrett, Sydnie Gay, Sara Getchell, Molly Glueck, Joshua Goff, Martin Guarnieri, Juliana Gudaitis, Jayde Gurney, Gavin Haines, Danielle Hall, Benjamin Hellen, Shelby Hoffman, Toni Holz, Maxwell Hopper, Travis Hosea, Gage Hughes, Elizabeth Hume, Alexander Jackson, Madison Jewell, Maya Johnston, Lucas Jolin, Shane Kauppinen, Gregor Keimel, Christopher King, Kody King, Nathan Kinney, Dawson Kitchin, Konnor Koroski, Grace Kroeger, Tabitha Lake, Dominique Lamontagne, Chance Languet, Isabelle Languet Joshua Languet, Hanna Lavenson, Jimmy Lemlin, Jayden Lenfestey, Benoit Levesque, Daimian Lewis, Eve Lilly, Addison Littlefield, Sarah Lowell, Sydney Lucas, Caleb Luce, Isabella Luce, Katie Luce, Ashlynn Lund, Christopher Mairs, Jayden Martin, Alyssa Methieu, Samantha Matthews, Mackenzie Mayo, Connor McCurdy, Aislinn McDaniel, Leighara McDaniel, Garrett McKenna, Kassie McMullen, William McPherson, Meghan McQuillan, Dylan Mercier, Nathan Milne, Ella Nash, Andrew Needham, Mattea Ogden, Joselyn Ouellette, Makayla Ouellette, Alexandria Pearce, Kailey Pelletier, Nathan Perkins, Jacob Perry, Rosemary Peterson, Francis Petrillo, Alexnader Pierce, Adam Pooler, Melayna Porter, Nathalie Poulin, Rylee Poulin, Brian Powell, Brian Powell, Colby Prosser, Valerie Quirion, Alysan Rancourt, Joshua Raymond, Kyera Ripley, Kaylee Rocque, Sean Rodrigue, Elijah Ross, Dharani Singaram, Lindsey Sirois, Emily Smith, Hunter Smith, Makenzie Smith, Taylor Staples, Hart St. Clair, Damian Taylor, Victoria Terranova, Richard Thompson, Deklan Thurston, Chloe Tilley, Eliza Towle, Sydney Townsend, Casey Turner, Brandon Veilleux, Jade Veilleux, Maria Veilleux, Matthew Veilleux, Kaitlyn Vigue, Carter Violette, Isaac Violette, Makayla Violette, Mason Violette, Aran Walker, Keith Warman, Elizabeth Webb, Gabrielle Wener, William Wentworth, Rebekah White, Mary-Jane Williams, Kaley Wolman and Joshua Zinkovitch.

Waterville High School

Halah Al Subai­hawi, Devin Andreozzi, Trent Andreozzi, Emilee Arbo, Maryah Audet-Gagnon, Estaphanie Baez Vazquez, Jess Bazakas, Jacqueline Bean, Timara Bell, Kristen Bickford, Taylor Bielecki, Abigail Bloom, Hallee Brunette, Bryn Burrows, Elizabeth Campbell, Damien Carey, Amaryllis Charles, Katie Chase, Kevin Chen, Hope Cogswell, Jacob Cornforth, Logan Courtois, Remy Courtois, Mickayla Crowley, Maggie Didonato, Hannah Dillingham, Gavin Dorr, Duncan Doyon, Keegan Drake, Lauren Endicott, Jaimee Feugill, Sadie Garling, Daniel Gaunce, Chloe Geller, Trafton Gilbert, Ryan Gilman, Devin Goldsmith, Benjamin Combos, Emma Goodrich, Sierra Grant, Joseph Gray, Cierra Guarente, Jacob Gerrerro, Kylee Hamm, Madison Hanley, Alexis Hawkins, Shantylane Hubiak, Keona Jeror, Miranda Juliano, Madaya Kavis, Sadie Labbe, Ethan Ladd, Peter Lai, Michael LeClair, Jordan Lesiker, Dakota Libby, Jasmine Liberty, Emelaine Llanto, Hannah Lord, Olivia Lovendahl, Joseph Macarthur, Rebecca Maheu, Christopher Manigat, Madeleine Martin, Shane Martin, Isaac McCarthy, D’Nell McDonald, Maxwell McGadney, Zaharias Menoudarakos, Luquis Merrithew, Alana Monk, Mckayla Nelson, Flesha Paradis, Jelani Parker, Lauren Pinnette, Sophia Poole, Katlin Prat, Barry Preble, Nikkia-Lynn Pressey, Colby Quinlan, David Ramgren, Dasia Roberts, Corinne Rogers, Lily Roy, Kira Sencabaugh, Amanda Shirley, Anthony Singh, Jared Sioch, Keisha Small, Simon Smith, Isabella Sousa, Joey Stanton Jr., Alisha Stevens, Catherine Tracy, Brady Vicnaire, Natalia Von Leigh, Cole Welch, Wayne Williams, Alysia Wilson, Erin Winkley and Cairlyn Young.

Winslow High School

Haneen Ali, Carly Anderson, Alika Andrews, Kathryn Bailey, Lily Barkdull, Rylee Batey, Devin Bettencourt, Eric Booth, Sebastian Bouchard, Cameron Brockway, Brandon Campbell, Lydia Carey, Briell Carter, Gabriella Chambers, Garrett Choate, Jessey Cloutier, Silver Clukey, Abigail Cochran, Brooke Cochran, Brady Corson, Camden Dangler, Alexander Demers, Micah Dickson, Willa Dolley, Katie Doughty, Ronan Drummond, Hannah Dugal, Brennan Dunton, Summer Eyster, Cloe Fecteau, Sophie-ann Gerry, Isaiah Gidney, Christopher Girard, Isaiah Goldsmith, Hannah Goodine, Cameron Goodwin, Cody Green, Bryce Gunzinger, Dawsen Gurski, Aaron Harmon, Gabrielle Hatt, Wyatt Hood, Landon Hotham, Jacob Huesers, Ross Hughes, Sadie Irza, Cody Ivey, Savannah Joler, Caleb Joseph Lagasse, Kaelyn Lakey, Juliann Lapierre, Nicholas Lemieux, Felicia Lessard, Alexee Littlefield, Riley Loftus, James Mason, Ronnie Mason, Ethan Matthews, Caleb Mills, Christopher Mills, Brandon Moore, Haylee Moore, Madison Morin, Mariah Morrison, Shaylie Morrison, Gabriel Moumouris, Skylar Nye, Elena O’Hara, Wesley O’Neal, Chase Pelkey, Leah Pelotte, Christopher Phair, Madalyn Phillips, Justice Picard, Faith Pomerleau, Colby Pomeroy, Alexis Porter, Christopher Poulliot, Morgan Presby, Anthony Proulx, Ashley Quirion, Kristen Rancourt, Braden Rayborn, Miranda Raymond, Zachary Real, Jackson Reynolds, Jenna Rodrigue, Taylor Rodriguez, Cheyne Salvas, Nevaeh Schuchardt, Carrie Selwood, Mallory Sheridan, Grace Smith, Austin Soucy, Alison Stabins, Bryanna Stanley, Hannah Stevens, Katherine Stevens, Nicholas Sweeney, Kaleb Thomas, Sage Vance, Gage Vaughan, Austin Veilleux, Abigail Washburn, William Weiss, Caleb Welsh, Austin Williams and Abigail Wright.

The history of the Kennebec Water District

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Most information in this section is from the comprehensive history section of the Kennebec Water District’s website, which was last updated in 2006.

The Kennebec Water District (KWD) was incorporated on March 17, 1899, the first such quasi-municipal district in the country and the pattern for generations of future water, sanitary, sewer and school districts. It was the brainchild of a lawyer named Harvey Doane Eaton (Sept. 20, 1862 – Oct. 17, 1953). Such districts allow towns and cities to cooperatively supply services like clean water that none could afford to supply by itself.

A for-profit predecessor, the Maine Water Company, controlled KWD’s water supply, which came from Messalonskee Stream, until stream pollution caused a 1902 typhoid epidemic. KWD officials chose China Lake as the replacement water source in 1903 and promptly started building a pipeline from the lake.

In May 1905 China Lake water came to KWD customers. “Water purity is exceptional,” the website says. When another typhoid epidemic in 1910 cast doubt on China Lake water, KWD hired a Harvard professor who found the real culprit: milk.

Between 1909 and 1912, KWD spent about $57,000 to buy China Lake shoreland, saving the estimated $100,000 to $200,000 cost of building a filtration plant. From 1920, the district planted trees in the watershed as another water quality protection measure.

A state-of-the-art filtration plant, at the time the largest in Maine, came on line in August 1991. It was the result of two factors: China Lake’s deteriorating water quality beginning in the 1970s (making “China Lake syndrome” nationally recognized in water quality circles); and the 1986 federal Safe Drinking Water Act, setting standards untreated China Lake water could not meet.

KWD served customers in Waterville, Fairfield, Winslow and Benton from the beginning and added Oakland (by contract) and Vassalboro. The five member municipalities, but not Oakland, are represented on the district board of trustees.

From KWD’s creation in 1899 until 1920, Albert S. Hall served as superintendent. (He was not the Albert S. Hall for whom Waterville’s Albert S. Hall School is named, nor that Hall’s father; according to educator Hall’s obituary, he was born in 1935 and his father’s name was Clifton L. Hall.) KWD’s second superintendent, Alvin B. Thompson, served even longer, from 1920 until 1948.

Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) still on at new venue

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In response to social distancing requirements and in the interest of public safety and health, the Maine Film Center (MFC) will present the 2020 Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) in a new, modified format. The 23rd annual MIFF will be held July 7–16 with in-person screenings held exclusively at the Skowhegan Drive-In Theater in Skowhe­gan, Maine. The twenty-third annual celebration of Ameri­can independent, international, and classic film will showcase nine feature films, comprised largely of World, North American, and East Coast premieres, as well as a program of Maine Shorts. Additional feature and short films will be made available for ticketed online streaming via the festival website, MIFF.org.

“We’re elated to be able to host a terrific lineup of films this summer, in spite of the difficulties that movie theaters across the country have experienced over the past several months,” said Mike Perreault, Executive Director of MFC. “While the festival may not exhibit the same number of films as in past years, we’re confident that our 2020 MIFF program will reflect the world-class cinema that our patrons and community have come to appreciate. We’re especially grateful that our partners at the Skowhegan Drive-In have agreed to host MIFF23. This all-too-rare kind of venue will be a great place for audiences to have a unique experience and enjoy movies from a safe distance.”

“While we’d love to be able to share with our audiences all the incredible cinematic discoveries we’ve made in working on this year’s festival,” said Ken Eisen, MIFF programming director, “we are truly thrilled to be embarking on what we are sure will be an exciting, safe, and joyful version of MIFF appropriate to the current conditions.”

“It is a privilege to have the opportunity to work with Maine Film Center to maintain the continuity of the Maine International Film Festival in this moment of unprecedented challenge,” said Donald Brown, owner of the Skowhegan Drive In-Theatre. “The Skowhegan Drive-In Theatre is a unique cultural attraction from an earlier era [and] MIFF is a resource for all of Central Maine. Together this summer, they will illuminate the night!”

The complete festival lineup, including titles that will be available for streaming, will be announced in June. Passes for the Festival are available to pre-order at MIFF.org.

Two Maine outdoor recreation startups collaborate to get more Mainers outdoors

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Hiking and camping gear rentals make it easier and less expensive to enjoy Maine’s outdoors. (contributed photo)

TreeFreeHeat founded by Thomas College senior Dylan Veilleux

Bioenergy startup TreeFreeHeat has signed its first distribution deal with Back40, a fellow Maine startup that operates an e-commerce site for outdoor gear rentals. Founded to make outdoor adventures as comfortable, convenient, and accessible as possible, Back40’s mission has become more powerful and urgent due to the social distancing restrictions recommended in response to COVID-19. Hiking and camping gear rentals make it easier and less expensive to enjoy Maine’s outdoors, and the new partnership gives consumers, whether seasoned recreators or first-time campers, easy access to TreeFreeHeat’s initial product offering, hemp stalk-based fire starters for campfires and cooking grills.

“This summer, outdoor adventures will be more popular than ever, and gear ownership shouldn’t be a barrier to enjoying Maine in a safe, healthy way,” explains Henry Gilbert, founder of Back40. “We are excited to supplement our gear rental options with TreeFreeHeat’s fire starters – it’s a great product that makes camping easier, and partnering with another Maine business is a no-brainer for us.”

The deal marks a major milestone for both startups, who are deeply interconnected within Maine’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Both contestants in the Greenlight Maine pitch competition – Back40 in the flagship competition, TreeFreeHeat in the Collegiate Challenge – the two startups formalized their connection at Waterville’s Central Maine Tech Night and quickly identified their product synergies. For TreeFreeHeat, Back40 provides promotion and distribution to its target market, including campers, campgrounds, and employer wellness programs. For Back40, the bioenergy fire starters made of renewable hemp stalk waste reflect the brand’s commitment to environmental sustainability and innovation while fulfilling consumer demand.

“Partnerships have been essential to TreeFreeHeat’s growth, and Henry’s commitment to making adventuring easy makes Back40 an ideal partner. As soon as I learned about what he was building, I knew he’d be a perfect match,” explains Veilleux. “And now that I have improved my manufacturing processes, I’ve been able to build more partnerships throughout Maine because I can now keep up with the demand people have for making better fires easier.”

As an alternative to wood-based fire starters, TreeFreeHeat was founded in 2019 by Dylan Veilleux, a senior at Thomas College and Entrepreneur in Residence at Bricks Coworking & Innovation Space, in downtown Waterville. With a proven market and streamlined production system, Veilleux is now scaling the startup through distribution deals and participation in Waterville’s TopGun mentorship program.

“TreeFreeHeat’s growth is a testament to Dylan Veilleux’s tenacity and strategic use of the entrepreneurship resources in the Waterville area,” states Garvan Donegan, director of planning and economic development at Central Maine Growth Council. “His partnership with Back40 is a powerful combination that enhances Maine’s outdoor recreation brand.”

Gilbert and Veilleux look forward to contributing to Maine’s legacy tourism economy in the 2020 summer season by offering innovative solutions within convenience and sustainability. TreeFreeHeat’s fire starters will be available on Back40’s website, www.back40adventures.com.

Free invasive plant management plans available

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Surveying several large, invasive autumn olive shrubs at the edge of a field, in Sidney.
Photo courtesy of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Farm and woodland owners and operators in five Maine counties may be eligible to receive a free invasive plant survey and management plan, prepared by a natural resource professional from the local Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD). Staff of SWCDs serving Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Somerset, and Waldo counties are looking for landowners or operators who would like to learn more about the invasive plants on their farms and woodlands.

Invasive plants like Asiatic bittersweet vines, thorny multiflora rose shrubs, sprawling Japanese barberry, and others can create dense tangles in forests, wetlands, and fields, crowding out native plants and young trees. Along forest edges and hedgerows, thickets of invasive shrubs can reduce the area of productive fields. Some invasive plants create habitat for ticks, cause skin rashes, or are harmful if eaten by livestock.

Many farmers and woodland owners know that invasive plants are present but aren’t sure what to do about them. Others may not know how to recognize invasive plants. Having a site visit and survey from the local SWCD is a chance to talk with a natural resource professional, learn to identify harmful plants, and get guidance on how to manage them. Survey data also help scientists understand invasive plant distribution in Maine because data are contributed to the online mapping tool iMapInvasives (imapinvasives.org), the central repository for invasive plant data in Maine.

This service is free to farm and woodland owners or operators thanks to a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS) administered by the Maine Natural Areas Program (maine.gov/dacf/mnap) in the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. The project is also funded in part by the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund (maine.gov/ifw/mohf), in which proceeds from the sale of a dedicated instant lottery ticket are used to support outdoor recreation and natural resource conservation. Space is limited and landowners/operators must meet basic USDA – NRCS eligibility requirements. Site visits will be conducted during the growing season, but sign ups are open now.

Participating landowners and operators are encouraged to act on the management plans they receive by implementing invasive plant treatments. Treatment funding may be available by applying to the USDA NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program through the local USDA NRCS office (nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/me/contact/local/).

To learn more and sign up for a free survey and management plan, please contact the SWCD in the county where the farm or woodland is located:

Somerset County: Joe Dembeck at jdembecksc15@gmail.com or 207-474-8323 ext. 3.

Kennebec County: Dale Finseth at dale@kcswcd.org or 207-621.9000.

Knox and Lincoln Counties: Rebecca Jacobs at rebecca@knox-lincoln.org or 207-596-2040.

Waldo County: Aleta McKeage at aleta.waldosoilandwater@gmail.com or 207.218.5311.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Log drives and harvesting “frozen gold”

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Horses and sleds were used to move ice blocks.

by Mary Grow

In addition to the mills and factories described in the previous article in this series (see The Town Line, May 7), two other uses for the Kennebec (and other Maine rivers) were transporting wood – long logs and four-foot pulpwood, for building and for pulp mills – and chopping cakes of ice for export all over the world. The log drives were mainly north of the Waterville-Augusta area, with pulpwood feeding Keyes Fibre, in Fairfield. Ice harvesting was mainly south of Augusta. But, as Jennie Everson shows in Tidewater Ice of the Kennebec River, people involved in the two activities overlapped.

Both businesses saw their heyday in the middle of the 19th century; both declined as railroad freight supplanted riverboat freight and the need for the products lessened. However, the Federal Writers Project Maine guide says barges and schooners continued to export both products into the 20th century.

River driving was at its peak between 1860 and 1890, according to David C. Smith’s A History of Lumbering in Maine 1861-1960. On the Kennebec, it started a bit later and was continuing, though near its end, when his book was published in 1972.

Wood was cut in the fall and winter and stacked near or on frozen streams, river and lakes. After the ice went out in the spring, logs and pulpwood were prodded downstream from small streams into larger ones, across lakes and eventually to and down the Kennebec River.

The wood normally reached mills in Waterville and Augusta in August or September. Driving ended for the season when streams began to freeze.

River-drivers herded the logs downstream, sometimes from boats, sometimes standing on the floating wood. They used long poles; peaveys, poles with curved hooks on the end used to grasp and move individual logs; and pickaroons, poles with spikes that could be driven into a log to hold or move it. (Peaveys and pickaroons are advertised for sale on the web today.)

Driving pulp and especially long, heavy logs down an ice-cold, swift-moving river was strenuous and often dangerous work. Logs would run ashore and get caught on rocks. They would pile up in head-high jams that had to be untangled and, when the key log was freed, would tumble tumultuously downstream. They would float uncontrollably seaward in floods. Heavy rain in the spring of 1887 washed almost 10,000,000 feet of timber down the Kennebec into the Atlantic, Smith says.

Smith’s description and random paragraphs in Kingsbury’s history suggest that river-driving was a young man’s job. Kingsbury mentions three Benton men who worked as river drivers. Jackson Fitz Gerald, born in 1815, was a river driver as a young man and later a farmer (Kingsbury gives no dates). William F. Wyman, born in 1824, moved from river-driving to farming in 1855. Alpheus Brown, born in 1837, was a river driver until September 1864, when he joined the army; he was a dam builder from 1866 until 1890 and then a farmer.

Manning the log drives.

The Kennebec Log Driving Company was organized in Gardiner on March 27, 1835, with 63 sawmill owners as its members. Members jointly built dams and booms to hold the logs in check, hired drivers, sharing the costs according to each members’ proportion of the logs. (A boom is a series of chained-together logs, often anchored to cribs – square wooden structures in the river filled with rocks – as well as to the shore, to hold back floating timber.)

Kingsbury credits Ira D. Sturgis (again see The Town Line, May 7), a businessman with interests in Augusta, Vassalboro, Nova Scotia and elsewhere, for persuading fellow lumbermen to build many of the booms along the central Kennebec, including one at Five-Mile Island, in Vassalboro, and another in Hallowell. These improvements, Kingsbury says, made it less expensive to separate logs and send them to the owners’ mills.

According to a September 8, 1976, New York Times article archived on the web, the Kennebec Log Driving Company ran the last log drive on the Kennebec in the summer of that year. Writing from Skowhegan, the Times reporter said about 30,000 cords of four-foot pulpwood were boomed about eight miles upstream of the Scott Paper Company’s mill, in Winslow.

The pulp had started downriver from Moosehead Lake in March and the drive was expected to end in October, the article said. Trucks would take over pulp-hauling.

* * * * * *

Ice harvesting on the Kennebec began in the 1820s and, according to Jennie Everson’s Tidewater Ice on the Kennebec, flourished from the 1850s to the end of the 19th century and ended around 1920. Everson was born in 1890, and her family lived on the river in Dresden in a large house where some of the higher-ranking ice company employees often boarded. Parts of her generously-illustrated book are based on her personal experience.

[See also: Remembering ice houses]

Dean Marriner, author of Kennebec Yesterdays, also saw ice-harvesting first-hand during his first year at Colby College in 1909-1910. He describes watching hundreds of men at work on the river south of Augusta.

Marriner says the business started in the spring of 1824 (Everson says 1826), when the brig Orion took floating Kennebec ice to Baltimore and sold it for $700. The first ice houses went up in Gardiner two years later, Marriner says, and building and improving these storage facilities continued for the rest of the century.

Everson lists three ice-houses in Augusta. An 1882 map she includes shows houses on the west side of the river owned by G. E. Weeks and by Getchell and others, with capacities of 2,000 and 3,000 tons respectively. The Getchell business was not far north of the Hallowell line, Weeks’ a bit south of the dam.

By the time an 1886-87 map was published, they were gone and Cony and White owned one with a capacity of 6,000 tons, still extant in 1892 when Kingsbury’s history was published. However, most ice-harvesting was south of Augusta – an 1891 map from the Ice Trade Journal shows four dozen ice houses from the southern edge of Augusta (Cony and White’s) to Bowdoinham and Woolwich, concentrated in Pittston and Randolph.

Ira Sturgis was involved with the ice business, too. Kingsbury says he owned ice houses downriver, including a large one in Wiscasset, and established southern ones in major cities (Washington, Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston and later Philadelphia and Baltimore) so ice could be stored and sold year-round.

In 1895, Bath native Charles W. Morse (Oct. 21, 1856 – Jan. 12, 1933) finished incorporating the Consolidated Ice Company, in Augusta, controlling most of the Kennebec ice-harvesting business. By 1899, Everson writes, his renamed American Ice Company ran all but one ice company on the river (the exception was on Swan Island, in Richmond). American Ice Company also went into the artificial ice business, she says, speeding the decline of river-ice harvesting; electric refrigerators, coming into use by 1815, finished off the industry.

In the 19th century, the working season began after the ice was thick enough, and by then, Everson writes, tree-harvesting was over, so some of the men who had worked as loggers went to work on the river and in the ice-houses.

Everson includes an undated wage table showing that men cutting and loading the ice earned from 15 cents an hour for the lowest-paid categories of workers to 25 cents an hour for a superintendent. In April 1906, for the first time, the workers struck, demanding a 25-cent-an-hour pay raise. To replace the strikers, woodsmen came downriver, and in May a boatload of Italian workers arrived.

The Italians lived in a boarding house close enough to Everson’s farm so that some of them came to buy milk from her father’s dairy. Neither the first nor a second crew stayed after more Maine people came or returned to the ice-house work and the strike petered out. Everson does not say whether the raise was granted.

Work was year-round, because ice that was cut from the river and stored in ice-houses in winter and spring was loaded onto schooners (usually; Everson mentions early 20th-century experiments with steel whalebacks from the Great Lakes and with barges) and shipped all over the world. The major markets were in cities along the east coast of the United States. Everson adds Cuba, Panama, the coasts of South America, India and New Zealand.

Alice Hammond, in her history of Sidney, mentions that residents cut ice for personal use from the Kennebec River and from Messalonskee Lake (Snow Pond) and three smaller ponds in town.

Main sources:

Everson, Jennie G. Tidewater Ice of the Kennebec River (Maine State Museum, Maine Heritage Series #1, 1970)
Federal Writers Project, Maine: a Guide Down East 1937
Hammond, Alice, History of Sidney Maine 1792-1992 1992
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed. Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 1892
Marriner, Ernest Kennebec Yesterdays 1954
Smith, David C. A History of Lumbering in Maine (University of Maine Studies #93, University of Maine Press, 1972)

Web sites, miscellaneous

Remembering ice houses

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by Roland D. Hallee

As a young lad growing up in the early 1950s, I can still remember my parents having an ice box* in the kitchen of our home in Waterville. That predated us getting a “new fangled” electric refrigerator later in that decade.

In the box, ice was placed in the top compartment, and a small door was closed. As the ice melted, it drained down a tube that passed through the cold section, and into a large tray that was located in a compartment at the bottom of the “fridge.” Once the tray was full, it was emptied.

I can still remember the ice wagon approaching the house every week, on a still unpaved street in the middle of the city, carrying ice chunks. A man would get out of the buggy, take the order, cut the block of ice to size in the wagon, and lugged it in the house with a set of ice tongs. The ice came from the only ice house I can remember in Waterville, called Spring Brook Ice and Fuel Co., that was, at the time, located behind some warehouses on the corner of Pleasant and North streets (across from Ware-Butler Building Supplies). You could drive by there in the middle of summer and see the ice chunks covered with sawdust and straw to slow the melting process. The company still exists today, only no longer offers ice. Those ice houses remained long after the industry disappeared, and were eventually torn down sometime around the 1980s.

The Spring Brook Ice Company was taken from the name of the crystal clear brook on Drummond Avenue that the owner, Robert L. Ervin, dammed and harvested every winter with his men. Blocks of ice were cut with heavily-toothed saws and carried by conveyor belt into the massive icehouse to be covered with straw and sawdust. Ervin was a Colby College graduate, coach, and business owner. He did not have to look far to see the sound commercial potential in the Kennebec River which had become the source of “frozen gold” for entrepreneurs shipping ice all over the world.

*My father preserved that icebox and installed it in a rec room in the basement of the house. It remained there until it was partially damaged by fire on December 1, 2018. The door was destroyed but the remainder of the shell and shelves remain.

Camp Tracy to open June 8

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Photo source: Camp Tracy website (camptracy.org)

Camp Tracy, sponsored by the Alfond Youth and Community Center, in Waterville, will open on June 8, and run through August 14.

All campers will be dropped off and picked up at the Camp Tracy Lodge/NO BUSES.

Registration & Payment for each upcoming week closes the Friday morning before.

They will offer all traditional camp programs of swimming, archery, arts and crafts, and more.

Starting June 8, Day Camp Tracy sessions will run weekly, Monday through Friday.

They are working hard to make the environment as clean and safe as possible and are following all CDC and health care recommendations.

All campers will have their temperatures taken and be health screened before being admitted to camp for the day.

For more details please contact the Alfond Youth & Community Center, 126 North Street, Waterville, ME 04901, telephone 207-873-0684.