Week of June 11, 2020

Celebrating 32 years of local news

Restaurant owner and family provide lunches for front line workers

Guacamole’s owner serves up burrito lunches to healthcare professionals

Ever the community-conscious entrepreneur, Kevin Joseph, owner of Guacamole’s Mexican sandwich shop on Main St., and You Know Whose Pub, at East Concourse, both in downtown Waterville, has been providing free burrito sandwiches to local front-line health care providers over the past several weeks… by Roland D. Hallee

Your Local News

Becky Hapgood appointed to succeed Heath as town manager

CHINA — At a short June 8 meeting, China selectmen approved public notices of two informational hearings that will precede the July 14 written-ballot town business meeting, and appointed Rebecca “Becky” Hapgood to succeed Dennis Heath as town manager and to fill Heath’s other positions…

Board approves solar energy project

VASSALBORO — Four Vassalboro Planning Board members present at the June 2 meeting unanimously approved a solar energy project at 515 Main Street (Route 32) almost opposite Ron’s Auto Parts. ReVision Energy, represented by Senior Project Developer, Nate Niles, and Construction Project Manager, Al Copping, plans a community solar farm on Bernie Welch’s land…

Palermo woman elected to board of trustees at library

PALERMO — At a recent meeting, Christine Diesch was elected to the Palermo Community Library Board of Trustees. Prior to retiring in Maine, she had a career ranging from running a crisis hotline to providing leadership coaching to world-class scientists and operations teams at one of the seventeen U.S. Department of Energy’s premier national laboratories…

LETTERS: There are anonymous angels among us

from Eric Austin (China) — My mother, Ann Austin, runs the China Community Food Pantry. She is an eternal optimist, and lives by the expression, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough”…

LETTERS: Hess a breath of fresh air

from Susan Cottle (So. China) — I only met Kalie Hess this year, but what a breath of fresh air! With a good education and experience in public health, a mind clearly engaged in current issues, and a voice that doesn’t start preaching but starts with asking questions and listening well, I was impressed…

LETTERS: ARRP responds to election order

from AARP Maine State Director Lori Parham — AARP Maine State Director Lori Parham released the following statement today in response to the Governor’s Executive Order on the July 14, 2020 Primary & Referendum Election…

OPINIONS: The Covid-19 lock down

by David Reed (Hope, Maine) — How can you foster a tourism industry in “Vacationland” when you impose a 14-day quarantine on state entrants, especially if they only have a two-week vacation? I’m 83 years old with a heart murmur, so I’m highly vulnerable. But why should the whole state suffer because of me?…

Local groups observe 76th anniversary of D-Day invasion

WATERVILLE — They say weather was one of the biggest factors in determining the success of World War II’s D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. After a cantankerous month of May, meteorologists were pessimistic about fair weather for the invasion planned at the beginning of June… [1699 words] by Eric W. Austin

Pandemic casualty: Joseph’s Fireside Restaurant closes its doors

WATERVILLE — The COVID-19 pandemic did what owners Kevin Joseph (no relation to Kevin Joseph of Guacamole’s and You Know Whose Pub) and E. J. Fabian feared the most: closing their beloved restaurant on other than their own terms…

Palermo student salutatorian for online school graduation ceremony

PALERMO — Maine Connections Academy (MCA), in Scarborough, the state’s first tuition-free, online charter school for grades 7-12, hosted its commencement ceremony online on June 8 to honor 77 students in its sixth class of graduating seniors. Lindsey Childs, of Palermo, was class Salutatorian…

Now is the time to take good care of our veterans

by Gary Kennedy — Well, here we are in this space and time. Covid-19 is involved in all we say and do. It is true here and it is true in the rest of the world. I have spent the past few months working on projects in Southeast Asia as I usually do…

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Albion (New!)

ALBION — There is debate over names of the first settlers in what is now Albion, partly because records are incomplete, partly because current Albion once included parts of several other towns. For example, Nathaniel Wiggin’s and several other families’ holdings at the north end of China Lake’s east basin were in Albion before the Albion-China boundary was moved north and their land became part of China…  [1722 words] by Mary Grow

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: China Lake

CHINA — China Lake is an important area resource for year-round recreation; drinking water in municipalities served by the Waterville-based Kennebec Water District; and, given the high value of waterfront property, taxes for the Town of China…  [1436 words] by Mary Grow

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: China

CHINA — The Town of China lies north of Windsor and west of Vassalboro. Much of the town is in the watershed of China Lake, a major influence in the town’s history. Two of the town’s four villages, China Village and South China, lie at opposite ends of the lake’s east basin. The other two, Branch Mills and Weeks Mills, are on the West Branch of the Sheepscot River in eastern China, upstream of Windsor…  [1566 words] by Mary Grow

Webber’s Pond

Webber’s Pond is a comic drawn by an anonymous central Maine resident…

Local Town Meetings Schedule 2020

Local town meetings schedule for 2020 for Albion, China, Fairfield, Vassalboro and Solon. To add your town to this list, email us at townline@townline.org

Give Us Your Best Shot!

The best recent photos from our readers!

Obituaries

SOUTH CHINA – William “Bill” F. Gray, 90, passed away Wednesday, May 20, 2020, at his home in South China. He was born September 25, 1929, at his family home in Windsor, the son of William W. and Sara (Hunter) Gray… and remembering 12 others.

Common Ground – Round 18: Win a $10 gift certificate!

DEADLINE: Friday, July 10, 2020

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: Michael Bilinsky, China Village

Town Line Original Columnists

Roland D. HalleeSCORES & OUTDOORS

by Roland D. Hallee | A couple of weeks ago, while driving into work, I heard over the radio about this giant Asian hornet that had made its way to the United States, and was first detected in Washington state. Haven’t we seen this movie before? Isn’t that where we were first introduced to the coronavirus Covid-19?…

Peter CatesREVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates | Verdi’s Rigoletto, along with Aida, and La Traviata, are arguably his three most popular operas. It is also the only opera I have seen in any Met productions, once in their 1966 touring appearance at Cony High School, locally in Augusta, and in 2007 at the Lincoln Center stage in New York City…

I’M JUST CURIOUS

by Debbie Walker | What to write about? I might have an idea for a column and in walks Nana Dee. We start talking about a thought that came to her during the early morning hours. She remembered a few words to a rhyme she knew as a child…

Marilyn Rogers-Bull & PercySOLON & BEYOND

by Marilyn Rogers-Bull | Good morning, dear friends. Don’t worry, be happy! It isn’t often that I have more local news to share than I have room for! I didn’t receive the following email until after the fact. The Marijuana Ordinance Committee held its first meeting on June 3. They worked on drafting the town ordinance to regulate marijuana businesses in Solon…

FOR YOUR HEALTH

(NAPSI) — There is no question, migraines can be hard to live with and treat. If you’re one of more than 36 million Americans living with migraine, you know that finding just the right acute treatment can be challenging…Take this simple challenge to determine your Migraine Treatment IQ…