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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 148, No. 26
32 PAGES - 4 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
June 29, 2017
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 7D
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Coming...
Knight hired as town’s planner
STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS — At age 81, Pete Alderman of Harrison is still barefoot skiing as shown in this photo snapped by friend, Peter Lowell, out on Crystal Lake in Harrison.
‘Rightsizing’ — BH cuts staff
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer Trying to “get ahead of the wave of impending financial pressures,” Bridgton Hospital cut two primary care and two specialty providers last week as part of a Central Maine Healthcare two-phase “rightsizing” effort. Bridgton Hospital President David Frum said Tuesday that Bridgton avoided a layoff in February, which 40 staff-level employees at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston were let go. Last week, Phase Two resulted in a reduction of 31 workers at practices and clinics system-wide, although 20 were “redeployed into other (existing) openings.” This time, cuts did hit home as Bridgton Hospital parted ways with two physicians, a podiatrist and oncologist, Dr. Hans Boedeker. Frum said the two physicians are headed toward retirement
by year’s end and remain on staff at this time, while oncology coverage was immediately transferred to three Central Maine doctors, who will spend time each week in Bridgton and Rumford. According to the Bridgton Hospital’s website, two oncologists “accepting new patients” include Nicholette Erickson, M.D. and Daniel Rausch, M.D. Podiatry at Bridgton Hospital will be phased out in 120 days, Frum noted. The program’s elimination was based on costs of service provided to revenue received. At this time, no other layoffs are expected. Frum said the hospital does a yearly review of services provided to chart use and financial viability. Dialysis is one service that the public has asked Bridgton Hospital to consider several times in the past, but it is both expensive to offer and requires a significant amount
of space to operate — two factors that make dialysis not feasible to add. “Hospitals are in crisis in Maine,” Frum said. “There is significant national pressures tied to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, as well as at the state level where some people will no longer have insurance or MaineCare, while others are going with higher deductible plans, which creates bad debt for us. We have to reduce costs, not only at Bridgton Hospital, but system-wide.” Frum explained that consumers purchasing medical insurance at “the market” often sign up for coverage with high deductibles to keep premiums affordable. With deductibles in the $5 to $7,000 range, Frum said studies show that many Maine residents carry an average of $2,000 in assets, thus hospitals oftentimes face absorbing shortfalls in patient payments resulting in rising debt.
Bridgton Hospital has seen its debt rise from $2 million to over $5 million this year. While the hospital will always treat patients in need of care despite financial standing, Frum said a “balance” needs to be in place to keep the facility open and operating. That balance is “providing quality service” while keeping operating costs manageable as the result of finding efficiencies — one area is staffing, and the other is how practices and clinics are operated. One example is Urgent Care. With openings emerging in several local practices, Urgent Care will be scaled back to weekend hours only. Patients will be able to see primary providers during the week, and can use Urgent Care for matters that surface over the weekend, Frum said. Since the staff shakeup, public concern has surfaced. While Frum has heard BH, Page 3A
Docks float into place by weekend By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Like the ugly duckling that turned into the graceful swan, these synthetic dock sections will be assembled in the water and transformed into a new extension, long-lasting dock design at the Town Dock. The material used and the engineering applied makes these docks capable of absorbing waves and reducing movement. So, it is the people who are standing on the dock who might appear more graceful. Certainly, more graceful than people have looked on the current dock system. But, not for much longer. As they say, “Out with the old; and in with the new.” And, just in time for the holiday when the boat traffic in
Naples peaks. By Friday — the official kickstart of the weekend before the Fourth of July, half of the dock system that was ordered will be a welcome addition to the town’s lakeside infrastructure. This week, the docks that were delivered and are staged at Kent’s Landing will be going into the water on that beach, where half of the dock system will be assembled and floated over to the town dock, according to Naples Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak. “About half the dock sections are going into the water. The divers are going to be in the water putting the anchors in tomorrow,” Paraschak said Wednesday morning at press time. “There will be a significant amount of boat parking
for the Fourth of July weekend,” he said. “That’s the worst case scenario. The best case scenario is we may have the rest of [the dock system installed] by the Fourth of July.” The total cost of the docks with installation is $40,000. That money will be taken out of TIF district funding, Paraschak said. “We did get an alternative price, other vendor were looking at $80,000. Great Northern Docks is giving the town the product at cost to get it out there,” he said. One big plus, the new docks will save the town with little- to no-maintenance costs needing to be budgeted every year, he said. Additionally, the docks come with a 20-year warranty. At the Naples Annual
Town Meeting, the residents approved $24,000 to support the purchase of a new dock system. That is something residents thought to be a worthwhile investment. The remaining money will come from a contingency fund and reserve fund, Paraschak said. On Monday, the Naples Board of Selectmen decided to use TIF funds to replenish the money that went toward the docks. After the Fourth of July, the dock design on the Causeway will continue to transform with work being done. “The whole thing will be in by July 5 or July 6, and maybe even including public safety dock,” Paraschak said. A docking area for the DOCKS, Page 5A
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — If the deadlock on the passage of the 2017 State of Maine budget continues, will there be a state shutdown? How will it impact the Lake Region, especially during the month of July? Those are real concerns as state shutdowns have happened in the past. A national shutdown in Washington, D.C., effectively closed the gates on many National Parks.
In Maine, towns rely on the tourists drawn to visit its parks. People from all other the world as well as locals spend time at Sebago State Park during the summer. As the Naples Board of Selectmen meeting wrapped up on Monday, the dreaded topic of an impending state shutdown became the discussion. “I am 100 percent against the shut down,” Selectman Cebra said. “Each budget cycle has
gotten more and more contentious,” Cebra said. He said three people from each the Senate and the House of Representatives went into a room with the budget on Friday, hoping to come to a clear resolution on how to cut the expenditures that outweigh the state revenue, according to Cebra. As of Monday, the stalemate continued. Nobody budged on the budget, Cebra said. If a state shutdown
occurred, the checks that are written from the state’s budget would stop coming, including unemployment insurance and paychecks for people with state jobs, according to Cebra. The money would not be distributed for the medical needs of people on MaineCare. “Shutting down the state is going to be a disaster,” he said. “It will affect us harshly. It would close the Songo Lock, the state park,” Cebra said.
Shutdown could impact ‘Lock’
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer Audrey Knight hoped to move back East to the summer home she so enjoyed. Then, she saw an advertisement — the Town of Bridgton was looking for a Community Development Director — that would make the move back to the old family farm in Harrison a reality. She applied and, Tuesday night, Knight landed the job. Without any discussion or debate, selectmen confirmed Knight by a 5–0 vote. She is scheduled to meet with Bridgton Town Manager Bob Peabody today, Thursday, and will likely begin the new job sometime in July. “Her depth of experience in all aspects of planning is what we were looking for,” Peabody said. “She is very enthusiastic about coming here and is excited about all of the things that are going on in Bridgton.” When selectmen turned down the first CDD nominee by a 3-2 vote, Peabody readvertised the position through a multiple of media outlets. Nineteen people submitted applications, and two were interviewed. Knight has served in a wide variety of planning capacities from conducting planning, zoning and demo-
graphic research for water and wastewater in Virginia, to being a senior advisor implementing code revisions and land use, corridor and neighborhood plans in Kansas City, to acting as a regional and senior planner in San Francisco and Ukaih in California. Her academic resume includes a bachelor’s of arts in Urban Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park and a master’s of Urban and Regional Planning from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She furthered her education with graduate and undergraduate study and lecture course work in areas of environmental design and planning, information management and neighborhood planning, quantitative methods for urban planning and legal aspects of planning practice (to name just a few) at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. In other business, Salmon Point leases going up. Selectmen approved a 3 percent increase in lease fees at Salmon Point Campground, and supported the 2017–18 budget proposed by the town manager. The town manager’s recBRIDGTON, Page 2A
Going...
Naples loses town manager By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — It was no secret that Naples Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak had applied for a town manager position with the Town of Gorham. He was one of two candidates being considered for the job. Last week, Paraschak announced that he had been chosen for the job, which would begin Sept. 1. He did that through a letter to the Naples Board of Selectmen. “Naples is a great community with a bright future ahead of it and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to have served as your town manager,” Paraschak wrote. This development meant the board met immediately on Monday, instead of waiting until the July 3 meeting date to address the process of hiring a new town manager and the selection of an interim town manager. On Monday, the board met to discuss how to insure that the transition to a new town manager goes smoothly. The full board voted to put out RFPs to firms that handle this type of hiring, including a request to the Maine Municipal Association (MMA). The
Ephrem Paraschak has accepted the town manager’s position in Gorham. turnaround time for the firms to respond with a proposal will be two or three weeks. According to Paraschak, “There are three to four firms that do this. MMA is the biggest.” “I would expect the Town of Naples to spend between…$3,000 and $8,000,” he said. “Put out an ad, sort out the applications, pick 10. The board picks the rest. They [the hiring firm] help to facilitate the interviews,” Paraschak said. “That is the complete process where they help you every step of PARASCHAK, Page 3A
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