Issue for October 12, 2023
China student honored at Annual SkillsUSA Workforce Development Event
A career and technical student in China was recognized for excellence at the 2023 SkillsUSA Championships, held in Atlanta, on June 21-22. More than 6,000 students competed at the national showcase of career and technical education. The SkillsUSA Championships is the largest skill competition in the world and covers 1.79 million square feet, equivalent to 31 football fields or 41 acres…
Vassalboro Historical Society quilt show a success
During the weekend of October 7 & 8, 2023, the Vassalboro Historical Society (VHS) held a Quilt Show and a raffle. The quilt exhibit showcased vintage, heritage and contemporary quilts that were donated to the Society over the years. Two quilts were donated as part of the raffle. One quilt was a lovely twin quilt in blue, black, and white made by Judy Wentworth Goodrich… submitted by Janice Clowes
Town News
Website management topic undecided, again
VASSALBORO – Vassalboro select board members sat behind their new laptop computers at their Oct. 5 meeting, for a long discussion that partly focused on the themes of residents’ knowledge of and involvement in town government…
Planners approve subdivision application; postpone other
VASSALBORO – At their Oct. 3 meeting, Vassalboro planning board members approved the subdivision application they postponed at their September meeting, and postponed a new application, for a small solar development, to November…
Town awarded 95K heat pump grant
VASSALBORO – Thanks to the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, Efficiency Maine, Eco Heat Maine and volunteers from the Vassalboro Conservation Commission, the Town of Vassalboro received about $95,000 worth of heat pump systems and service at the Town Office, North Vassalboro Fire Station and the Public Works Garage…
China public hearing canceled
CHINA – The China planning board’s public hearing on Novel Energy Systems’ proposed community solar garden on Parmenter Hill Road, scheduled for Oct. 10, was canceled due to lack of a board quorum. A new hearing date will be set and announced…
Real ID deadline is 2025
CENTRAL ME – The REAL ID deadline is now May 2025, yet the multiple extensions have caused confusion among the general public. When Maine residents were asked what they believe the deadline to be, the average answer given is on October 5, 2023…
Name that film!
Identify the film in which this famous line originated and qualify to win FREE passes to The Maine Film Center, in Waterville: “One word: Plastics.” Email us at townline@townline.org with subject “Name that film!” Deadline for submission is November 9, 2023…
Webber’s Pond
Webber’s Pond is a comic drawn by an anonymous central Maine resident (click thumbnail to enlarge)…
Rheumatologist joins Northern Light Inland Hospital
WATERVILLE – Northern Light Inland Hospital welcomes rheumatologist Sheena Henry, MD, to Northern Light Rheumatology in Waterville…
TEAM PHOTO: Waterville 3/4 youth football team
WATERVILLE – Team photo by by Missy Brown, Central Maine Photography…
TEAM PHOTO: Messalonskee 5/6 youth blue team
OAKLAND – Team photo by by Missy Brown, Central Maine Photography…
TEAM PHOTO: Waterville 5/6 youth football team
WATERVILLE – Team photo by by Missy Brown, Central Maine Photography…
PHOTO: Messalonskee varsity at homecoming
FAIRFIELD – Members of the Messalonskee varsity football team riding in the parade. Photo by Galen Neal, Central Maine Photography…
Local residents named to Simmons University dean’s list
CENTRAL ME – The following local students were named to the 2023 spring semester dean’s list at Simmons University, in Boston, Massachusetts: Emma Soule, Farmingdale, Abigail Bloom, Waterville, and Maddie Beckwith, Winslow…
Sam Voter named to St. Lawrence University’s Spring 2023 dean’s list
CORNVILLE – Sam Voter, from Cornville, has been named to St. Lawrence University’s dean’s list for achieving academic excellence during the Spring 2023 semester, in Canton, New York…
Cameron Goodwin consults for PUMA
WINSLOW – Cameron Goodwin, a recent graduate of Lasell University, in Newton, Massachusetts, from Winslow, spent the spring semester consulting for PUMA, the Boston-based international footwear and apparel giant. In May, they presented their findings and business recommendations at company headquarters to PUMA staff…
Sydney Veilleux recieves Collaboration Award from Lasell University
SKOWHEGAN – Sydney Veilleux, a Lasell University student, from Skowhegan, was recognized by their peers for outstanding collaboration in the spring 2023 semester in their Retail Innovation Lab course, in Newton, Massachusetts…
Local happenings
EVENTS: One night only! The Poe experience
AUGUSTA – Begin your Halloween season with a free night out when Recycled Shakespeare Company presents The Poe Experience. One night of chilling tales and Gothic poetry by Edgar Allan Poe will be brought to life in the darkness, surrounding the audience with sights and sounds in this unique Reader’s Theater…
CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Soup and Chowder Supper
PALERMO — The American Legion Post #163, Palermo, will be hosting a Soup and Chowder Supper on Saturday, October 14, from 5 – 6:30, at the Malcolm Glidden American Legion Post #163, off the Turner Ridge Road, in Palermo. Everyone is invited… and many other local events!
Obituaries
SOUTH CHINA – Paul Harland Page, 92, passed away on Monday, October 2, 2023. He was born in East Vassalboro, May 22, 1931, to Gustavus and Lena (Levitt) Page… and remembering 12 others.
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Agriculture – Part 6 (new)
WATERVILLE HISTORY — Another locally-bred trotting horse, even more famous than General Knox (described last week), was Nelson. Nelson was a bay horse. The color is described on line as “a reddish-brown or brown body color with a black point coloration on the mane, tail, ear edges, and lower legs.” Several on-line pictures dramatically contrast his dark mane with his lighter body. He stood a little over 15 hands (readers will remember a hand equals four inches)… by Mary Grow
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Agriculture – Part 5
KV HISTORY — Some of the central Kennebec Valley agricultural pioneers chose to breed racehorses, specifically trotters, instead of, or in addition to, the cattle discussed last week. For example, Kingsbury mentioned in the chapter on Waterville in his Kennebec County history that George Eaton Shores, of Waterville, who bred Hereford cattle, “also handled some horses, selling in 1879 the race horse Somerset Knox for $2,700″… by Mary Grow
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Agriculture – Part 4
KV HISTORY — Continuing with the agricultural theme, this article will move readers north on the west bank of the Kennebec River from Sidney to Waterville and will focus on 19th-century cattle breeders… by Mary Grow
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Agriculture – Part 3
KV HISTORY — This subseries began last week to talk about some of the central Kennebec Valley’s agricultural pioneers whom Samuel Boardman named in his chapter on agriculture in Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history… by Mary Grow
Common Ground: Win a $10 gift certificate!
DEADLINE: Wednesday, October 12, 2023
Identify the people in these three photos, and tell us what they have in common. You could win a $10 gift certificate to Hannaford Supermarket! Email your answer to townline@townline.org or through our Contact page. Include your name and address with your answer. Use “Common Ground” in the subject!
Previous winner: Mary Jane Vigue, Winslow
Town Line Original Columnists
SCORES & OUTDOORS
by Roland D. Hallee | One day last week, as we were backing out of our driveway, I noticed something hanging from the front door knob. I stopped, and my wife jumped out to see what it was. What else but a political notice. That is not the subject of this column. What is that on her way back to the car, at the base of a pine tree, she picked up a dead monarch butterfly. What had caused its demise?…
FINANCIAL FOCUS
by Sasha Fitzpatrick | After spending decades in the workforce, you might look forward to the day you retire. But if you decide, for one reason or another, that you’d like to redefine “retirement” to include part-time work or consulting, you could enjoy exercising your skills and meeting new people. But you can also receive some key financial benefits…
VETERANS CORNER
by Gary Kennedy | I had someone ask me this week where our newspaper was. I was at the Cony Hannaford at the time and knew that the location had been changed the previous week. I showed the customer the new location but low and behold the papers were gone. This was on Saturday. I explained this was unusual and I would keep an eye open to see how the paper was being used…
REVIEW POTPOURRI
by Peter Cates | The 37th President Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) would often take long walks along the beach at his San Clemente vacation house on the Pacific Coast. I vividly remember seeing photos of him taken from a distance by the journalists whom he despised and whose favor he rarely, if ever, sought…
I’M JUST CURIOUS
by Debbie Walker | I always thought that Spring is the season of cleaning, but I read a column in our local newspaper, Citrus Chronicle, not so. Maybe someone changed the season, and I missed it! Thanks to Patricia Shannon I read about it in August and just settled down now to write…
FOR YOUR HEALTH
(NAPSI) — Families across the country cope with the effects of the climate crisis as extreme storms, wildfires, heat and floods grow in frequency and intensity. In fact, one of the nation’s leaders in disaster relief, the American Red Cross, now responds to nearly twice as many large disasters across the country as it did a decade ago…