bn24061412

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Good case of the Blues

Fantastic finish

Naples will be rocking this weekend with the return of the popular Maine Blues Festival

Inside News

The Fryeburg Academy softball team avoided an upset by rallying in their last at bat in semis

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www.bridgton.com Vol. 143, No. 24

Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. 32 PAGES - 4 Sections

Bridgton, Maine

June 14, 2012

(USPS 065-020)

SIXTY CENTS

Resident defends right to display racist sign By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Drivers turning into Fosterville Road from Route 107 look to their left at their own risk. There, just inside a garage beside an old farmhouse, is a freestanding hand-lettered sign, large enough to be easily seen from the road. On the upper right is a photo of U.S. President Barack Obama. On the upper left is a caricature of an African-American, labeled “Sambo.” But, it is the words that have the most shock value. The sign contains a racially-offensive term, and accuses Obama of engaging in sexually-deviant behavior. It ends by encouraging people to “Join Bridgton Ku Klux Klan.” Around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Bridgton Police Officer Phil Jones responded to a complaint at the 8 Fosterville Road property, listed as owned by Francis and Rosemary Houston,

both of whom died in 2008. Police Chief Kevin Schofield didn’t have the details of the complaint, and Officer Jones was unavailable for comment. But the man who lives at the farmhouse and has been selling some of its contents was freely willing to talk. He declined to give his name when asked by a reporter for The News, but simply identified himself as “Pratt.” Pratt said a friend who lives in the South asked if he could display the sign, and Pratt agreed. He also agreed to sell some Klu Klux Klan items, including a padded cross with a Confederate flag logo that Pratt said is designed to be lit aflame at rallies and other events. He held up the cross to show it off. “You can buy these things all over the South,” he said. “I have one of them. They’re reproductions” of the types of crosses that were

used by the Klan during its heyday, he said, and can be had for around $15. Pratt gave the man’s first name as “Chet,” and said Chet sold a fair amount of items when he was visiting last weekend. He said Chet plans on his next visit to bring Klu Klux Klan brochures to pass out to anyone who’s interested, in the hopes of rallying support for the Klan’s cause in the Bridgton area. Pratt said there’s an active contingent of mostly young people in the region who subscribe to the tenets of the “White Power” movement, believing that African Americans bring with them crime and violence wherever they settle. He offered numerous cases, and particularly singled out what he said was the negative impact of the Somali population in Lewiston. Pratt said the police were called after a man driving by in a pickup truck stopped and

attempted to remove the sign from the garage. Pratt stopped him. Pratt said Officer Jones initially said the sign was illegal because of its racial content, and also because it constituted disturbing the peace. Neither reason rang true for Pratt, who invoked his right to freedom of speech. Officer Jones left the scene, and Chief Schofield said that once his report is complete, the department will forward it to the Cumberland County District Attorney, the Maine Attorney General and the U.S. Secret Service for possible prosecution. “Frankly, it’s oftentimes a very fine but blurry line between what is free speech and what can cross over into criminality,” said Chief Schofield. State disorderly conduct laws or the Maine Civil Rights Act might apply, or they SIGN, Page A

At polls: McHatton, Taft win; Sebago rejects fire plan

By Lisa Williams Ackley Staff Writer Voters here elected Robert J. McHatton Sr. and Douglas A. Taft to serve three years on the Bridgton Board of Selectmen Tuesday, while Deanna “Dee” Miller and Mike Figoli won the two three-year positions on the Bridgton Planning Board. Taft, the incumbent, received 655 votes, while McHatton captured 503 votes and Kenneth Murphy had 443 ballots cast for him.

Incumbent planning board member Miller had 498 votes cast for her, while Figoli received 430 votes, Adam O. Grant had 376 votes and Richard Danis had 284 votes, respectively. Adam Grant received 52 write-in votes, for the threeyear term as an alternate member on the Bridgton Planning Board. Amendments & enactments Amendments to the Town of Bridgton Site Plan Review

Ordinance were overwhelmingly approved at the polls June 12, as were the enactment of two new ordinances — the Town of Bridgton Park Forest Trust Fund Ordinance and the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Ordinance. At the polls Jody M. Gray captured 636 votes and Peter Morrison had 630 ballots cast for him, to take the two, three-year seats on the School Administrative District 61 Board of Directors.

There were two two-year terms open on the SAD 61 Board of Directors, with Cynthia B. LeBlanc receiving 704 votes, while Trina Sanborn had three write-in ballots cast for her. Todd E. Perreault, who received 782 votes, was unchallenged in his re-election bid to the Bridgton Water District for a three-year term. There were 965 total ballots cast, on Tuesday. Sebago says ‘No’ SEBAGO — Voters here

resoundingly defeated a referendum ballot question at the polls on Tuesday that would have authorized the Sebago Board of Selectmen to issue bonds in the amount of $830,000 to fund a portion of the monies needed to construct a new fire and rescue station. There were 427 ballots cast against the proposed bonding authorization and 114 ballots in favor. The defeated referendum question would have autho-

What Bridgton wants?

SAD 72 losing fed funds

with donations still coming in. “We just put in another half dozen (engraved bricks) down in the Village,” she said. The bricks, ranging in cost from $75 to $125, are intended to memorialize a veteran (or veterans), acknowledge active duty members and memorialize or acknowledge anyone. Along with the 4”-x-8” bricks, there are also 8”-x-8” brick tiles that can be engraved, along with larger granite blocks once in place at Arlington National

By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Anne Krieg, Bridgton’s Director of Planning, Economic and Community Development, said it was heartening to her to see nearly 30 residents show up for the May 31 downtown revitalization workshop sponsored by the Community Development Committee. It meant that people wanted the new planner to know what they cared about, and what they’d like to see being worked on in town. “A lot of these ideas have been voiced before, but for me, being new, I wanted to hear them,” said Krieg. “I’m glad they were patient with me.” The informal brainstorming session had Krieg at the white board, writing down ideas both ambitious and routine. The ideas ranged from such mundane items as having a “left green onto Kansas Road,” to defining the role of government in working with the private sector on downtown revitalization. Krieg said the workshop helped validate the current efforts of the Comprehensive Plan Committee to update the 2004 Comprehensive Plan, as well as the CDC’s various projects. “It validates moving forward in these areas,” Krieg said. She said she was impressed by the willingness of those who attended to speak their minds about what they wanted to see happen. “It showed me that people are engaged in Bridgton, and

BRICKS, Page A

WANT, Page A

By Lisa Williams Ackley Staff Writer FRYEBURG — School Administrative District 72 is anticipating a likely reduction in funds it receives for Title I and other federal programs in FY 2013, following a notification from the Maine Department of Education late last month. “We haven’t gotten a final figure yet,” SAD 72 Superintendent of Schools Gary MacDonald said Tuesday. “One of the places it will cut is Title I — and it could impact Title I and Title II, some of the Special Ed funds and the Career and Technical education funds.” “It could be enough to really impact us — like 10, 15 or 20%,” Supt. MacDonald said June 12. “We really don’t know the amount of the reductions — they (the Maine Department SPILLING OVER — Heavy rain has left many docks underwater. Here, Hayden and Shannon Hanson splash water with their of Education) just told us there feet while sitting on a bench at the Naples Town Dock area off the Causeway. The photo was taken by Deborah Hanson. could be a reduction in federal SAD 72, Page A

Thieves walk off with ‘Walk of Honor’ bricks

STOLEN — Walk of Honor bricks at Harrison VFW.

rized the selectmen “to issue bonds or notes in the amount of $830,000, which funds would have been callable, for the purpose of funding a portion of the costs of the town’s proposed fire-rescue station facility to be located at a site on the east side of Route 114, which site the voters previously authorized the town to acquire and develop.” Fryeburg voting results FRYEBURG — Voters here elected Paul Naughton as their ELECTION, Page A

By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer HARRISON — Police are looking for information on whoever stole an entire pallet of 4”x-8” red bricks intended for use in the local VFW Post’s ongoing “Walk of Honor” project. The bricks were to be used as filler alongside lazer-engraved bricks comprising walkways both at the Ronald St. John Post #9328 and at the Harrison Library’s Veterans Memorial. “Times have to be pretty tough when someone has to steal the bricks for a veterans’ walk of honor,” said Muffett Crowell, who chairs the post’s Walk of Honor Committee. The pallet, containing between $150-$200 worth of bricks, was stored at the edge of the post’s property on the Waterford Road. To add insult to injury, the theft occurred right after

Memorial Day, although Crowell wasn’t sure of exactly which day. She said the thieves must have seen the bricks as easy pickings, being unprotected and set back from the road as they were. Town Manager George “Bud” Finch said Harrison’s regular patrol officer for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department wasn’t on duty when the theft occurred. He is encouraging anyone with information about who may have taken the bricks to call the Harrison Town Office at 583-2241. “Somebody takes a whole pallet-load of bricks, it isn’t like they took one brick. Somebody must have seen something,” Finch said. The Walk of Honor project, begun by Crowell Memorial Day 2011, has been hugely successful, raising around $18,000 for the post thus far,

The Bridgton News Established 1870

P.O. Box 244, 118 Main St. Bridgton, ME 04009 207-647-2851 Fax: 207-647-5001 bnews@roadrunner.com


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