Issue for September 16, 2021
Vassalboro celebrates 250 years as a town
Photos from Vassalboro’s 250th anniversary celebration, including the Vassalboro parade, Color Me Fun Run, and Scavenger Hunt winners!
Your Local News
Planners approve three applications
VASSALBORO — Vassalboro Planning Board members unanimously approved all three applications on their Sept. 7 agenda, including what board Chairman Virginia Brackett said was the fourth application presented for a solar array in town…
Selectmen approve funding for community ice rink
CHINA — At their Sept. 13 meeting, China selectmen unanimously approved the Recreation Committee’s plan to spend about $5,000 from the recreation reserve account for an ice rink this winter, and commended Chairman Martha Wentworth and the rest of the committee for their activity…
Four candidates vie for two selectmen’s seats
CHINA — With the deadline for returning nomination papers passed, China Town Clerk Angela Nelson reported only one contest on the Nov. 2 election ballot, four candidates for two seats on the Board of Selectmen…
CBC discusses how to publicize ballot question
CHINA — China Broadband Committee members spent their Sept. 9 meeting discussing plans to publicize and explain the Nov. 2 ballot question asking voters to authorize borrowing to support expanded and improved internet service…
Transfer station subcommittee agrees on mission statement draft
CHINA — Members of the China Transfer Station Visioning Subcommittee agreed on a draft mission statement at their Sept. 10 meeting and discussed possible items to include in a vision statement…
China resident John Glowa announces as Democratic candidate for governor
CHINA — John M. Glowa, Sr., of South China, has become the first declared Democratic candidate for governor in the 2022 election. Glowa, 67, is a seventh generation Maine native who was born in Aroostook County and who, like many Mainers, moved with his family to Connecticut in the 1950s…
LETTERS: Freedom has many meanings
from Walt Bennett (South China) — I am writing to you today to address the tone of discourse online when the subject of COVID-19 is mentioned in any way. I have two concerns. One is that some people are horribly misinformed, endangering their own health and the health of their loved ones…
LETTERS: Sad day at Country Manor
from Frank Slason (Somerville) — It is with a sad heart, tear in my eye and a lump in my throat that must let people know how heart breaking it is with the closing of what was one of the best nursing homes, for assisting living facilities around…
Recover Out Loud in Maine’s Capital September 30
AUGUSTA — Join the Maine Recovery Advocacy Project as we Recover Out Loud in Maine’s Capital! and celebrate International Recovery Day and National Recovery Month on September 30th, 2021 from 5 to 10 pm in Mill Park…
Mid-Maine Chamber, Alfond Youth & Community Center to continue festival of trees
WATERVILLE — Alfond Youth & Community Center and Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce combine efforts to present Festival of Trees this holiday season, continuing a proud tradition begun by the Sukeforth family in 2015…
Ticonic Gallery and Railroad Square Cinema participate in Freedom & Captivity Project
CENTRAL ME — Ticonic Gallery and Railroad Square Cinema will participate in the Freedom & Captivity Project, a statewide, coalition-based public humanities project designed to consider a future without prisons and mass incarceration. The initiative runs from September through December 2021 and features over 50 participating organizations and institutions…
Chamber hosts re-vamped Super Raffle dinner
WATERVILLE — Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce’s Super Raffle Dinner, is back, with a new venue, and re-energized format. The annual dinner will be hosted on Thursday, September 30, at The Elm, College Avenue, Waterville…
Vassalboro Fire Department receives canned drinking water for wildfire response
VASSALBORO — The Vassalboro Fire Department recently received canned emergency drinking water to help provide critical hydration to its responders during this year’s wildfire season…
Northern Light Inland Hospital to reopen Waterville COVID-19 drive-up testing facility
WATERVILLE — With COVID-19 testing needs increasing, Northern Light Inland Hospital is planning to reopen its Drive-Up COVID-19 testing site in Waterville. The site is located behind Inland Hospital at 200 Kennedy Memorial Drive…
Sydney Townsend on MCPHS dean’s list
SIDNEY — MCPHS University, in Boston, Massachusetts, has announced that Sydney Townsend, of Sidney, has been named to the dean’s list for the Spring 2021 semester. Sydney is pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy. Sydney will graduate from the Boston, Massachusetts campus in 2026…
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Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Hallowell academies (new)
HALLOWELL HISTORY — Remaining to be described are numerous other 19th-century public and private schools in central Kennebec Valley towns. A few are well documented; for most, local histories offer only tantalizing glimpses… by Mary Grow [1608 words]
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Central Maine high schools
CENTRAL ME HISTORY — According to Millard Howard’s history of Palermo, an 1817 Massachusetts law that apparently carried over into Maine in 1820 required each town with 50 families to provide a primary school and each town with 200 families to have a grammar school whose teacher was able to teach Latin and Greek… by Mary Grow [1796 words]
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Cony Flat Iron Building
AUGUSTA HISTORY — One more former school in the central Kennebec Valley is on the National Register of Historic Places: the original Cony High School, in Augusta, often referred to as Old Cony High School, to avoid confusion with present-day Cony High School, or as Cony Flatiron, for its unusual shape… by Mary Grow [1860 words]
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Schools – Part 1
CENTRAL ME HISTORY — There are four school buildings in the central Kennebec Valley that are on the National Register of Historic Places, two in Augusta and one each in Winslow and Waterville… by Mary Grow [2000 words]
Webber’s Pond
Webber’s Pond is a comic drawn by an anonymous central Maine resident (click thumbnail to enlarge)…
2021-’22 Real Estate Tax Due Dates
2021-2022 Real Estate tax due dates for the following towns: CHINA, FAIRFIELD, PALERMO, SIDNEY, VASSALBORO, WATERVILLE, WINDSOR and WINSLOW…
Obituaries
FAIRFIELD – Andrew B. Mosher, 55, passed away on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, following a brief illness. Andy was born on March 9, 1966, in Waterville… and remembering 13 others.
Common Ground: Win a $10 gift certificate!
DEADLINE: Friday, October 8, 2021
Identify the people in these three photos, and tell us what they have in common. You could win a $10 gift certificate to Retail Therapy Boutique in Waterville! 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: Dave Carew, Waterville.
Town Line Original Columnists
SCORES & OUTDOORS
by Roland D. Hallee | OK, it’s mid-September and time for me to go out on a limb, stick my neck out, walk the tightrope – take your pick of the risk I’m about to take. It’s my annual attempt at reading Mother Nature’s warnings, and predict the upcoming winter. I know…I know, it’s only September, but that season will be here before we know it…
MAINE MEMORIES
by Evangeline T. | I grew up in the small town of LaGrange, Maine. We had a general store, a post office, service station, and a railroad station. My first train ride was on an old black steam engine from that station to Milo, Maine, a distance of approximately ten miles. I’ve never forgotten it!…
POETRY CORNER
by Marilou Suchar | By myself – but not alone/Watching snowflakes as they roam/I watch the birds swarm to feed/I see them clamber in their need/By myself – but not alone…
SOLON & BEYOND
by Marilyn Rogers-Bull | It doesn’t work to get a swelled head, take it from one who knows! I just called Roland thinking I could ask him if he would use last week’s column that didn’t get printed, in this weeks paper?…
REVIEW POTPOURRI
by Peter Cates | The delightful scoundrel H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) wrote the scholarly and hilarious Treatise on the Gods in 1930 and revised it in 1946. Like so much of Mencken’s writing, it is very biased, scores points both intentionally and unintentionally in spots, reveals blindness in other spots, and was never intended to be taken very seriously…
FOR YOUR HEALTH
(NAPSI) | The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on lives in more ways than many realize. For example, it meant too many Americans neglected getting the regular health testing—particularly cancer screening—they should…