Left photo, Jocelyn Begin, of Fairfield sang At Last, by Etta James, to win the Winslow Family 4th of July Idol Competition in the 13 and over age group. She surprised an entire audience with her vocal power and accuracy at the young age of 13. She plans to compete on The Voice in a couple of years.
Right photo, Members of the Winslow Junior High Music Band performed in the Winslow parade.
Photos by Mark Huard, owner of Central Maine Photography
From left to right, JMG student Cassie Horan, town manager Mary Sabins, JMG student Paeshance-Rae Horan, builder/philanthropist Ray Breton, Oak Grove board member and VCS teacher Sue Briggs, JMG student Halley Haskell, VBA member and AgMatters CEO, Locklin Titus,VCS principal Dianna Gramm and JMG master specialist Victor Esposito.
Photo courtesy Victor Esposito
Students enrolled in Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), at Vassalboro Community School and the remainder of the student body, along with the help of advisor Victor Esposito, recently secured a grant from the Oak Grove Foundation to be used to build a gazebo near the public swimming area in North Vassalboro.
The intention was to help build community in Vassalboro and have a downtown center focus. Ray Breton, a local builder and philanthropist, who has been making a number of improvements to the downtown area, for both young people and adults, will be building the gazebo on his property that is located next to the downtown swimming area.
They were awarded a $4,000 grant from the Oak Grove Foundation, another $1,000 has been given by the Vassalboro Volunteer Fire Department, and $100 from AgMatters, in Vassalboro. There have also been smaller donations from individuals in town. McCormick Building Supply, in Winslow, is donating $2,000 in materials, and Mitchell Roofing, of Oakland, donated $500. The total cost to construct the gazebo is $9,000. If anyone is interested in helping meet the goal they should contact Ray Breton at 207-877-2005.
Kaitlynn Pelletier, of Waterville, was named to the dean’s list for the spring semester. Dean’s list students must maintain a GPA of at least 3.4 out of 4.0.
Pelletier, a graduate of Messalonskee High School, in Oakland, is pursuing a bachelor of science, bachelor of arts in music education and music at The Valley.
Dean’s List status, which is awarded to students who earned a scholastic average of 3.6 or better while carrying at least 12 hours of regularly graded courses, has been granted to Zachary Caruso, of Waterville, in the Fall 2016 semester, at Lehigh Univeristy, in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.
Area students were named to the dean’s list at Colby College, in Waterville, for their outstanding academic achievement during the spring semester of the 2015-16 year. Twenty-four percent of the student body — 452 students – qualified for Colby’s dean’s list this semester by earning a semester grade point average of 3.75 or higher.
Caitlin R. Farrington, of South China, a member of the class of 2018, attended Erskine Academy. She is the daughter of Neil and Doreen Farrington, of South China.
C. William Qualey IV, of Norridgewock, a member of the class of 2016, attended Skowhegan Area High School. He is the son of Charles and Patricia Qualey, of Norridgewock.
Christine LaVerdiere, FNP, will be joining the medical team at Sheepscot Valley Health Center this summer to provide healthcare to the community. Sheepscot patients may recognize Christine as she participated in her final student rotation at the health center this winter while completing the Family Nurse Practitioner program at University of Southern Maine. Christine brings over 10 years of experience as a critical care registered nurse in hospital settings. In 2004, she obtained a bachelor of nursing degree from St. Joseph’s College, in Standish. Her areas of clinical interest include family health promotion and disease prevention.
Christine LaVerdiere
Christine will be joining physicians Roy Miller and Kathryn Wistar, family nurse practitioners Amber Shepherd and Ashley Hamilton-Ellis, and physician assistant Shannon DeLong. The health center offers primary care to 4,000 people of all ages from Coopers Mills, Jefferson, Somerville, Washington, Whitefield, Windsor and surrounding communities. In addition, established patients obtain podiatry, behavioral health, and adult psychiatric medication management services on site at the health center.
Sheepscot Valley Health Center is part of HealthReach Community Health Centers, a group of eleven Federally Qualified Health Centers in Central and Western Maine. Dedicated providers deliver high quality medical and behavioral health care to citizens in over 80 rural communities. To ensure access for everyone, HealthReach accepts Medicare, MaineCare and major insurances. In addition, an Affordable Care Program is available to uninsured and underinsured residents as well as assistance with applications for programs that help with the cost of healthcare and medications including the Health Insurance Marketplace. A private, non-profit with a 41-year history, HealthReach is funded by patient fees, grants and individual donations.
by Mary Grow
China Planning Board members unanimously approved a revised permit for the community solar farm on Route 32 North (Vassalboro Road), allowing it to be four times as large as originally planned.
At the board’s June 28 meeting, Hans Albee of ReVision Energy, engineer who will oversee the project on land leased from Christopher Hahn of Three Level Farm, said since the original permit was approved in August 2015 the community solar farm has attracted potential owners who use more electricity than expected.
The new application is for up to 200 kilowatts of capacity, requiring up to 800 solar panels covering an area of about 42,000 square feet, 12,000 square feet of panels with aisles between them.
The array will be owned and managed by an association of not more than nine Central Maine Power Company customers, who will use the electricity generated and sell the surplus to CMP. Although the project will be larger, it will still connect to the same already-existing CMP line.
The panels will be about 10 feet high, angled at 35 degrees so snow will usually slide off, with non-reflective glass to minimize glare and maximize solar intake. Once the panels are in place and the owners’ association formed, mowing and other maintenance become the association’s responsibility, Albee said.
Planning board members found the revised project meets all criteria in China’s ordinances. They decided no public hearing was needed.
Albee said the project should be built this summer and in operation by fall.
After acting on the solar farm, board members, Selectmen Ronald Breton and Joann Austin and Codes Officer Paul Mitnik reviewed some of the proposed ordinance changes that will be subjects of a July 26 public hearing.
Mitnik said the proposed changes are on the town website. Board members asked Austin to submit her suggestions for additional changes in writing before the hearing, at which they intend to solicit residents’ input.
The July 26 hearing will be held at China Middle School to accommodate the expected crowd and will probably begin around 6:30 p.m. It will be preceded by a 6 p.m. public presentation by Colin Clark, shoreland zoning expert with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The planning board will not meet July 12, there being no pending applications.
INside the OUTsideby Dan Cassidy
Part 1 of 2
If you’ve been on the road anywhere between Skowhegan, Madison, Solon and Bingham, on Route 201 over the past several months, you may have been held up in a rare traffic jam, as state and local police escorts, support vehicles and huge tractor-trailer trucks transported massive towers, motors, blades and other related wind tower equipment to the Bingham, Mayfield and Kingsbury areas of Johnson Mountain off from Route 16.
According to the SunEdison website, manufacturers advanced solar technology is installing solar power systems that are supposed to deliver cost effective electricity to residential, commercial, utility and government customers.
Of the 56 towers planned for the area, 11 towers will be installed in Bingham. Photo by Dan Cassidy
Turbine deliveries began in the fall of 2015, and there are several towers already in place. The operation was suspended for about eight weeks due to spring posted road conditions, however Reed & Reed accelerated delivery of a large percentage of the project’s turbines during the winter months that allowed assembly to continue into the spring.
Reed & Reed and a team of highly skilled subcontractors are erecting turbines in two areas, with 36 turbines located just north of Route 16 and 20 turbines to the south. They are currently on schedule for an early completion by this fall.
The project hasn’t been all that easy, as SunEdison, once a poster child of the clean energy boom ran into financial troubles earlier this year, caused by a mountain of debt taken on during better times, according to their website.
“The decision to file for bankruptcy was a difficult, but important step to address our immediate liquidity issues,” Ahmad Chatila, SunEdison CEO said in a published statement. The statement went on to say that SunEdison was flying high with shares trading above $33. The collapse happened soon after. Earlier this spring, the shares were trading at about 34 cents. Trading was halted shortly before the bankruptcy filing.
As far as the filing of bankruptcy protection affecting the Bingham project, the project has been financed and was acquired by Terra Nova Partners last year, according to SunEdison sources. The bankruptcy should have no impact to the project whatsoever.
There were a lot of factors that went into the decision of erecting towers in the Bingham, Kingsbury and Mayfield area. “We choose locations to build projects that require good wind speed in the area, access to transmission, limited number of residences or camps nearby, willing landowners, and local support,” said John Lamontagne, Senior Director of Communications at SunEdison, in an e-mail interview. “All those factors were involved in this project, but especially the wind and the local support,” he said.
SunEdison is the head of the overall project, although they are working very closely with the owners of the project. “Reed & Reed has been the general contractor on all the wind projects that SunEdison has built in Maine. “They are a great partner with us. That is their role at Bingham,” he said.
The towers are approximately 100 meters, (330 feet), and each will have three blades attached that are about 57 meters, approximately (188 feet). In total, if a blade is standing straight up, the structure is about 157 meters, close to (515 feet). The unit attached to the tower and what the blades are attached to is called the nacelle. It is where the electricity is being generated. The blade speed depends on the wind speed. Collector lines are going to be installed and will be connected to a substation, which then sends the electricity via transmission lines, according to Lamontagne.
According to Lamontagne, there are three landowners that are involved in forestry where the project is taking place. “Construction began on the project last year. Clearing work was started, logging roads were widened, and collector cables were installed. Towers didn’t start going up until March of this year.”
Lamontagne said that they plan to set up 56 turbines, each with a capacity of 3.3 MW. “In total, the project is projected to power about 60,000 homes. We expect the project to be online and operational by the end of the year.”
“The energy is being sold at a highly competitive price to customers, on par with natural gas,” Lamontagne said. “Customers will have the benefit of clean energy at no additional cost on their electricity bills.”
(Continued next week)
by Mary Grow
Kelly Payson-Roopchand has found her place in life.
She and her husband Anil live on Pumpkin Vine Family Farm on Hewett Road, in Somerville, with their two children, numerous goats and ducks, two pigs, two Jersey cows, two cats, a boisterous young dog, and assorted wildlife, from the barn swallows nesting in the old barn to the frogs, turtles, beaver and occasional moose in the brook at the foot of the nearer field.
Anil with the children Kieran, left, and Sarita. Photos courtesy Kelly Payson-Roopchand
The place has been farmed since the early 1800s. The barn was probably built in the 1820s, with an addition in the 1920s; Kelly and Anil had an expert replace worn-out sections in 2010. Francis Kennedy built the stone bridge across the brook in 1870 so his sheep could reach the far pasture.
The original part of the house also dates from the 1820s. It stands just below the crest of a hill with a view to the southeast, sheltered by the hilltop and the barn from the cold winter wind. “We’re so lucky to be here,” Kelly says. “We’re just the present caretakers; we want to share.”
And share they do. Pumpkin Vine Family Farm welcomes visitors Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the second summer of Farm Camp for children will run for two weeks in July and August. Sunday guests can tour the property and meet the animals, often guided by Kieran, who’ll be eight years old the end of July, and Sarita, who turned six late in March. Sarita shares her birthday with her maternal grandfather, Harold “Smoky” Payson, of China, and with Shirley Hewett, widow of Donald Hewett, the last of the six generations of farmers who owned the property before Kelly and Anil bought it in 2007.
Kieran has other farm assignments, too, helping with milking and haying, but he still has time to enjoy catching frogs and spotting turtles at the brook.
Anil planting garlic with Kieran last fall. Photos courtesy Kelly Payson-Roopchand
In the former garage Don Hewett’s brother Lloyd built just south of the house Kelly and Anil run a Sunday shop, selling their home-made goat cheeses, goat milk and fall vegetables (the goats keep them too busy to tend a summer garden). This spring Benji Knisley and Shaun Keenan from Sand Hill Farm joined them, bringing early vegetables, baked goods and jams and jellies.
Inside the big barn, separated from the hay-strewn wooden floors and wooden pens, are two ultra-modern easy-clean rooms, one for milking the goats and one for making cheese. Goat milk easily picks up flavors from its surroundings, Kelly explained; milking in the barn can give it a sourish taste, milking in a clean room retains its natural sweetness.
Farm Camp started in 2015 with a single session. It was so successful that this year there are two sessions, July 18 to 22 for children from four to six years old and August 8 to 12 for those seven to nine years old. By mid-June the first session was full; there were still two vacancies for older children.
In preparation for Farm Camp, the settlers’ garden of potatoes and grains and the Native American garden with the traditional threesome of squash, beans and corn have been planted for young campers to weed, water and learn from.
The farm is old, but innovations are welcome. Don and Shirley Hewett were delighted to abandon kerosene lanterns and hand pumps when electricity was introduced in the 1940s, and Kelly and Anil have established their web site, pumpkinvinefamilyfarm.com.
Kelly and Anil’s dual mission is to keep Pumpkin Vine Family Farm a working farm and to teach interested people of all ages about their connections to the land.
They came to their lifestyle from academic backgrounds; both hold advanced degrees in agricultural subjects. Both preferred hands-on farming to the desk jobs that normally follow such an education, although, Kelly says, theoretical knowledge is extremely valuable: they know enough about soil science, chemistry, animal genetics and dozens of other topics to prevent many potential problems and solve most that do arise.
They have not chosen a life that will make them rich, nor an easy life. Both hold part-time outside jobs, and both sets of parents have helped financially and physically. Much of their farm equipment is old enough to make Anil’s mechanical skills invaluable.
Especially in spring and summer, farm work begins before sun-up and continues after sunset. Earlier this spring Kelly went to check on a very pregnant goat named Viola at 3 a.m. and decided she’d better not go back to bed; at 5:30 a.m. she played midwife as Violet was born.
Nonetheless, Kelly found time to write a book about Pumpkin Vine Family Farm. Birth, Death and a Tractor: Connecting an Old Farm to a New Family, was published last year by Down East Books. The book was one of three finalists for the John N. Cole award offered by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, and just won third place in the nature category in Foreword Reviews’ national Indiefab competition. Inspired by and including many of the stories Don and Shirley Hewett told, Birth, Death, and a Tractor alternates between historical sketches and Kelly and Anil’s story from the fall of 2009 through the spring of 2010.
“We’re just carrying on the tradition,” Kelly said. “It’s a beautiful place and a beautiful connection; it feels like we’re part of the farm.”
On Sunday July 17, in the Belgrade Lakes Region, bait your hook, cast your line and you might reel in not only fish, but Cash Awards as well! In this fishing derby, each class of species offers cash prizes ranging from $75-$250 per category for a total of $2500. Derby organizers are also offering $500.00 for a grand slam catch. In the children’s section, trophies will be awarded for the first three places in each category.
Lakes included in this derby include Salmon Lake, McGrath Pond, East Pond, North Pond, Great Pond, Long Pond and Messalonskee Lake. The weigh-in station will be at Memorial Hall, on Church St., in Oakland from 10 a.m. – noon and 3 – 5 p.m. Sunday, July 17. Fishing is from 5 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Proceeds from the Derby will benefit Water Quality and Invasive Species issues in our Watershed. Additionally, Friends of Messalonskee was awarded a Maine Land Conservation Grant from the Maine Community Foundation to also help protect Messalonskee Lake. Entry forms can be found at the Oakland, Sidney and Belgrade town offices and at various local stores. You can also visit www.friendsofmessalonskee.com or www.oakfestmaine.com to register or call 207-465-8333. Derby Rules are posted on our website as well as all of our other events.