Summer Scene
Champ, once more
Dancing in Denmark; photos of Bridgton, Naples parades; Casco Flea Market Saturday
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Despite recent surgery, Moninda Marube defends his Bridgton road race title
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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 145, No. 28
32 PAGES - 4 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
July 10, 2014
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 5D
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Woman found alive in Waterford woods
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer NORTH WATERFORD — A K-9 unit found 77-yearold Ruth Brennan alive and well Wednesday morning as scores of volunteers and search and rescue professionals geared up for a third grueling day of searching in the thick woods, streams and swamps around the Five Kezars in North Waterford. It was a happy ending to one of the largest search and rescue operations in the history of western Maine. The Maine Warden Service said Brennan, who lives in South Portland and was on vacation with family, was found around 9:30 a.m. No further details were available by the News’s press time. According to news reports, Brennan was found west of Jewett Pond Road in the woods. “She was quite a ways
away and spent quite a bit of time walking in the woods,” said Lt. Adam Gormley. Brennan disappeared after leaving a remote cabin at 6 Spur Ridge Road, located off Five Kezars Road, to walk to Melby’s Market & Eatery in North Waterford. After searching with planes, dogs, helicopters, on horseback, ATVs and on foot, the Maine Warden Service and other agencies had issued a plea Wednesday for volunteers from the public to help them with the search for Brennan within the Five Kezars, a chain of ponds spanning three towns. A mobile command post has been set up at the Waterford Fire Department headquarters at 366 Valley Road in Waterford. Tuesday’s search concentrated mostly on roadsides, trail edges, streams, travelways and inside vacant struc-
tures where Brennan may have sought shelter. Oxford County Sheriff’s Deputies were also conducting doorto-door searches. Warden Service Spokesman John MacDonald said Tuesday they were in it for the long haul, and they wouldn’t stop until Brennan was found. An infrared camera positioned on an Air National Guard helicopter was being used at night, but it came up with no information because of the dense tree canopy, MacDonald said. On Wednesday, a more comprehensive grid search of the woods was just getting underway when Brennan was found. Lt. Adam Gormely of the Warden Service headed up the search, and was assisted by other Game Wardens, the Maine Association of Search and Rescue (MASAR), Oxford County Sheriff’s Department, Maine
State Police, Maine Forest Service, Maine Army Guard, Waterford Fire Department, and other area fire departments. Brennan, of South Portland, was with her family at their annual weeklong vacation at the 6 Spur Ridge Road cabin, when she left at around 10:30 a.m. Monday to walk to Melby’s Market & Eatery, a distance of several miles. Brennan’s family said she was a regular walker and in good physical health, but is prone to “some memory lapses,” according to Warden Service Spokesman John MacDonald. He said earlier reports that Brennan has dementia were inaccurate, as there has been no diagnosis as such. MacDonald said there were several sightings of Brennan that helped narrow the search area considerably. One witness reported
Ruth Brennan Photo courtesy Maine Warden Service seeing her walking on Five Kezars Road at around 3 p.m. Monday. Thick woods, difficult terrain and swamps exist on either side of the roads from the cabin, located between two of the ponds on a nar-
row piece of land. The camp roads include Bridge Road, Kezars Ridge Road and Five Kezars Road. Horses were trucked in Tuesday to help with the search, and police K-9 dogs were also used.
Disorderly housing hearing set
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer The battle lines were drawn in the sand Tuesday as Bridgton Selectmen set a hearing date on a Disorderly Housing Ordinance violation at 3 Fowler Street. The hearing will be held by selectmen at 6 p.m., Wednesday, July 23, in the Selectmen’s Room of the Bridgton Municipal Complex. The owners of the apartment building, Betty and Anthony Numberg, sat in the audience as Police Chief Kevin Schofield told the board he had compiled a list of six verified and founded police calls to the property over a 12-day period in June. The ordinance requires only three such calls within 60 days as sufficient grounds for a violation. After the board set the hearing date, Betty Numberg fought back, asking whether the hearing would confine its discussion to only the six documented calls. “Or, are people going to be embellishing on past incidents” in which neighbors called police
to complain that her tenants were being disorderly, she said. She was told that only the six incidents would be discussed. She told the board that the female tenant involved in
the complaints of fighting, screaming and loud music was moving. “She’s been evicted,” Betty Numberg said of the tenant. Then she asked the board how she would go about setting
up a separate hearing to deal with “false complaints, going on and on and on with these two neighbors.” She asked, “What is my recourse as an owner about calls that are unfounded?” New Town Manager Bob Peabody told her she should make her request in writing, and the selectmen would consider it. In a memo to the board, Schofield listed the following calls for service, which police were later able to verify as legitimate complaints: • June 11 — 8:10 a.m. A man and woman were yelling and arguing. • June 16 — 11:23 p.m. People were fighting, then left the building. Police verified the fight had taken place when they caught up to the people involved. • June 23 — 12:32 p.m. A man and a woman were engaged in a verbal argument. • June 23 — 6:34 p.m. Intoxicated people were being loud and wrestling in the back yard. Office Matt McCormick gave them a warning on a criminal charge of disorderly HOUSING, Page A
Paraschak took a mallet in hand. On July 3, he helped During his first week at his new post, Naples Recreation Director Harvey Town Manager Ephrem Price pound wooden stakes
into the ground. Along with orange surveyors’ tape, the stakes designated parking spots at the Town Beach property. This was done in anticipation of crowds during the July holiday. However, Paraschak was on his own when it came to making the decision to postpone until Saturday all Independence Day events in Naples. Well, Mother Nature
might have helped with that one. On July 4, areas in Casco and Naples ended up on the receiving end of between one and four inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. On Thursday — prior to the rainstorm, as soon as Paraschak made the decision to postpone the activities, the announcement was placed on FaceBook and NOTES, Page A
LISTENING CAREFULLY TO ALLEGED COMPLAINTS — Anthony Numberg and Betty Numberg are owners of an apartment house at 3 Fowler Street in Bridgton, where numerous police calls have taken place. A hearing has been set for Wednesday, July 23, at 6 p.m. in the Selectmen’s Room of the Bridgton Municipal Complex to determine whether the Numbergs are in violation of the town’s Disorderly Housing Ordinance.
Notes: New manager takes helm New town manager takes helm
Looking forward to Fourth parade
DURING HIS FIRST WEEK — as Naples town manager, Ephrem Paraschak definitely “rolled up his sleeves.” Three days into the job, Paraschak worked with the Naples recreation director to designate parking spaces at the Town Beach and Kent’s Landing. (De Busk Photo)
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Susannah Hann and her family wouldn’t miss the Independence Day parade in Naples for $100. Not for $100, not in 100 years. In fact, the natives of Natick, Massachusetts, who summer in Naples, only missed the parade once in 100 years. “Eight generations of my family have been coming to Naples for the Fourth of July,” she said. “For 100 years, it has been a tradition in our family, except one summer they
didn’t make it up here because of gas rations. That was during World War II,” said Hann, whose maiden name is Field. While it is not unusual for people to travel from Massachusetts to the Lake Region during the height of summer, Hann’s in-laws made the jaunt all the way from Australia. This was their fourth time seeing the Naples parade, which was postponed until Saturday this year because of torrential rain on July 4. After Saturday’s parade, Susannah Hann’s two daughters were engrossed in a PARADE, Page A
THIS BUILDING — that once served as the Casco Town Office and then as a TD Bank branch, now stands vacant. It is one of two options for future sketches of a town office plan. (De Busk Photo)
Casco narrows office options By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — Casco’s local elected officials decided to narrow the focus of options for a future town office. Their decision was based on comments of residents and a desire to keep down the cost of engineer’s sketches. The Casco Board of Selectmen zoned in on two options: A remodel of the former TD Bank building next to the library in the Village, and a newly-constructed building located on the lot of the Casco Fire Station — also in the Village district. During its Tuesday meeting, the board voted to move forward with sketches of the two alternatives for a new town office. The current structure, which for the past nine years has served as the Casco Town Office, was designed as a storage space. The building even has garage doors on the side. Meanwhile, as was pointed out by the selectmen, town documents are stored hither and yon. Chairman Grant Plummer toyed with the idea of asking individuals who work at the fire station if they would use the building for storage if it was vacated, and if that storage space is needed. Certainly, town storage space is a much-needed commodity in the Village. “We have storage up above the post office, which has a dangerous stairway, and underneath the community center. We store road construction signs in a basement — another set of stairs,” Plummer said. Mary-Vienessa Fernandes agreed. “We are storing a little bit of everything everywhere in this town,” she said. Town Manager Dave Morton spoke about the benefits of freeing up the building — once again using it as storage space for multiple town departments. “Storage is critical for us,” he said. Morton also addressed the difficulty of expanding the current building. “From a practical standpoint, it would be hard to operate the town office while construction is taking place. I am sure there would be a way to do that, but it would be a challenge,” he said, adding that there would be nowhere for personnel and equipment to go to sidestep a construction project. At that point during the evening, the board decided to OFFICE OPTIONS, Page 3A
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