Festival for the folks
Pushed to limit
It’s finally here! The 2nd Annual Village Folk Festival is this Friday and Saturday
Inside News
Great Adventure Challenge tests athletes’ physical, mental toughness
Page 1B
Page 1C
Calendar . . . . . . . 6B-7B Classifieds . . . . . . 4D-5D Country Living . . . 2B-8B Directory . . . . . . . . . . 3D Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 6D Opinions . 1D-3D, 5D-8D Police/Court . . . . . . . . 4A Sports . . . . . . . . . 1C-8C Student News . . . . . . . . Games . . . . . . . . . . . . 5C
Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 145, No. 34
32 PAGES - 4 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
August 21, 2014
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 6D
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Science Center gets green light
DAZZLING — Rick Hagerstrom of Bridgton and his 12-year-old daughter, Rose, entertained an appreciative audience last week at the Bridgton Public Library courtyard. The juggling and illusion show was part of the Bridgton Alliance Church’s Sparks Week, Hagerstrom said. The church also sponsored an outdoor concert and Long Lake boat ride as a give-back-to-the-community effort. (Rivet Photos)
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer The Bridgton Planning Board’s Aug. 5th approval of the new Maine Lakes Science Center is being touted, not surprisingly, as a “watershed moment” by Lakes Environmental Association Executive Director Peter Lowell. Actually, Lowell is using the term to describe the bigger picture, that of bringing forth what was only a concept six years ago into an achievable reality. LEA still has a significant capital campaign ahead of them to raise the estimated $408,000 it will take to build the center, on 16 acres of land adjacent to Pondicherry Park off the Willett Road. The budget includes $175,000 to purchase the former home of Edward and Constance Flint, which will be renovated and repurposed with living units, lab space, a conference room and educational center.
Another $75,500 needs to be raised for site work for a parking area, access road upgrades and a new septic system. The remaining $157,500 will cover building reconstruction and furnishings, Lowell wrote in LEA’s summer newsletter. Lowell wrote that the center, once complete, will make Maine a leader in the urgent need for research to build public support for policy changes that will better protect lake water quality. He said the Maine Lakes Society, with which LEA has formed an alliance of lake associations known as the Maine Lake Leaders, estimates “that we have less than two decades to make the changes required to preserve our lakes — or we will lose them forever.” Lowell said despite the importance of lakes and their watersheds to the economies of towns, “relatively few resources have been devoted SCIENCE, Page A
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer The Maine Department of Transportation contacted the town of Bridgton recently to force compliance on a law requiring a 20-minute interval between messages displayed on changeable electronic signs. The law, adopted around seven years ago, arose from the concern that drivers would be distracted by signs with colored text messages that are continuously changing. Some towns have taken the view, however, that a 20-minute interval between changes is excessively long. At their Aug. 5 meeting, the Bridgton Planning Board joined that group. The board granted a waiver to the Magic
Lantern Theatre to allow an eight-second interval on its flashing sign announcing both theater movie times and special events at the Tannery Pub. The waiver essentially allows the Magic Lantern to use its sign the same way it has always done since rebuilding the complex in 2008. Bridgton has three other businesses — McDonald’s, Food City and Bridgton Veterinary Hospital — that use changeable electronic signs. None of these businesses have, to date, requested a waiver. Bridgton Veterinary Hospital has not been operating its sign for some now because of a malfunction. WAIVER, Page A
Magic Lantern gets sign waiver
Food insecurity: Pantries see spike in winter By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Not everyone who needs extra assistance with food is able to get to a local food pantry. One pantry volunteer knows someone in his neighborhood who receives hospice care after a head injury left him unable to work. While hospice helps a few times a week, the man does not always get a nice, healthy meal. Randy Steber is a Naples resident and a volunteer for CrossWalk Community Outreach, the nonprofit organization that provides the public with a food pantry and free meal twice a month. CrossWalk serves residents in five communities: Sebago, Naples, Casco, Bridgton and Harrison. Every other Monday, Steber brings a box of food to his neighbor. “My fiancée takes food from the house and cooks for him. Sometimes, she tries to cook a meal from what he has in his kitchen. But, it isn’t much,” Steber said. “One day I brought him a maple-filled muffin. You could see his eyes light up when he bit into it. He said, ‘Randy, thank you.’ I thought, ‘What did I do but pick up a box because he couldn’t get out,’ ” Steber said. While this situation is not
the commonplace scenario, a growing percentage of families in the region rely on food pantries to make ends meet. While transportation expenses factor into the increasing cost of food at the grocery stores, wintertime heating fuel costs tend to take the biggest toll on household budget. According to CrossWalk Vice President Nancy Vose, there was an increase in food pantry numbers around midwinter. “Since January we were in the 70s for the number of families who use the food pantry,” she said. But, by the first part of February, 100 area families stood in line at the food pantry. Essentially those families represented 260 people who took advantage of the services. The number of households jumped even higher in April. There were two food pantry offerings that month. On April 14, 105 families (or 286 people) benefited from the pantry; and on April 28, 119 families (or 336 folks) accessed the food pantry, according to Moore. “There were obvious spikes in the winter into the spring,” she said. By June, the individual households that used the pantry — that number had settled back down to 83, Moore said.
Volunteer Steber said during the summer months, more children come through with their parents because of school vacation. He said food insecurity is a problem that effects all ages. “There is an older generation and a younger generation,” he said. It doesn’t make him feel sad that members of society
need help from food banks. Those people walk away with boxes and bags of food — including fresh produce — that they would have otherwise not had in their cupboards and in their refrigerators. Mary Fernandes said she wonders how many people in the region are in need, but don’t show up to the food pantry.
“In Maine, some people will go hungry or freeze” during the winter “because they are too proud,” she said. At the Casco Alliance Church’s food pantry, which serves only Casco residents, the average is 25 households, or 75 to 80 people, according to Judy Theberge, who coordinates that program. “In the fall and winter, we go close to 30 households,
about 90 to 100 people. That is from about October through January and February,” she said. “That is when people are having to pay for fuel. We tend to see more families and elderly, too,” Theberge said. “We do emergency baskets. That can be a couple per month (because) people are running short on grocerFOOD, Page A
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Parking spaces around the Naples Town Office continue to be scarce, particularly for a few hours in the afternoon every other Monday. The area immediately behind the town office, which was once open for the taking, has now been designated for town employees only. Those signs were posted two weeks ago. This designation was made so that the town employees could park their vehicles there — thus opening up space in the front of the building for people making stops at the Post Office or the Town Office. One problem is that the new parking rule has made it difficult to park for a few dozen volunteers with CrossWalk
Community Outreach, the nonprofit group that offers twice monthly free meals and food pantry access. In recent months, volunteers had been permitted to park behind the town office. This put volunteers in close proximity to the shed from which they unload boxes for the pantry. Pat Griffins, the resident Master Gardener for the CrossWalk Community Gardens, said the change in the parking came as a complete surprise — something that she had not been forewarned about. “I am shocked. I am appalled. I feel so unwelcome,” Griffins said. “It makes it really hard to teach a gardening class,” when people cannot find a place to park, she said. Griffins, an Otisfield resi-
dent, teaches classes on gardening topics to the public on the alternate Mondays when the food pantry is not held. On Monday, she was dropping off ripe tomatoes from the garden for that afternoon’s food pantry. She was worried that she might be towed if she did not move her car quickly. According to Naples Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak, the change in parking has been in effect for two weeks. He said that the nonprofit is still welcome in the town’s
gymnasium — despite a shortage of parking spots for both volunteers and clients. “CrossWalk is a program that has a lot of people who utilize that,” he said. “We haven’t got any complaints. We are worried about emergency access. There are other organizations that use the building,” Paraschak said. “CrossWalk is looking for a bigger place. They are still welcome to use our buildPARKING, Page A
Parking logistics persist on Mondays
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