The Inside News Paying tribute to veterans; FA featured on ‘MaineLife’; Hikers tidy up SW Ridge Section A
Happenings
Inside News
Sebago in the holiday mode; Different Thanksgiving dish; Harvest Gold’s fall showing
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Section B
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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 150, No. 47
16 PAGES - 2 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
November 19, 2020
www.bridgton.com
(USPS 065-020)
95¢
Court sides with manager Restraining order given to Norway resident
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer HARRISON — At times, when Tim Pellerin hears a vehicle’s door shut in the town office parking lot, he becomes a little anxious. He always looks out his window to see who is there. He wonders if trouble and danger have returned to the Harrison Town Office doorstep. “It stays with you,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get over it. Not quite there yet.” A confrontation in late September has kept the manager and town staff occasionally on pins and needles. Three out-of-town men walked into the office unannounced with video cameras in hand and refused to leave the building despite Covid-19 restrictions (the town allows just three people in the clerk’s office at a time). They claimed their First Amendment rights
allowed them free, unlimited access to walk around the facility and videotape. One “activist” had a firearm in his possession. He and another man refused to identify themselves — another Covid requirement in case contact tracing is needed. Town officials knew the identity of the third man — Brian Sessions, 58, of Norway — since they had a previous similar incident involving Sessions at the transfer station. When asked to leave the building, the trio refused. Words were exchanged and caught on video. The situation escalated resulting in physical contact between Pellerin and Sessions. As the situation unfolded, staff kept members of the public out of the facility. County deputies and Bridgton Police arrived, and diffused the situation. No charges or arrests were made that day. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident, having at their disposal a lengthy video, taken by the three men, and posted on YouTube and footage from two Harrison Town Office cameras offering two differORDER, Page 2A
Creative ideas to brighten the holidays
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer Bridgton Rec Director Gary Colello understands the need to bring some type of normalcy during Covid-19 times. With so many traditional events and activities being shelved due to the pandemic, Colello and other local residents tried to brainstorm to find creative ways to keep the annual Festival of Lights on the calendar. “As Covid continues to affect our lives we balance out the ways to still offer programming and events for the community. Festival of Lights is a special event for the Town of Bridgton and has transformed over the years into a ‘go-to’ event and the second largest attended town event,” Colello said. “Santa and his elves visit, breakfast is served by our veterans, the librarians read special holiday books, the craft fair was a great way to shop local, and of course the holiday party in from of the library was always a great time. Let’s not forget all the great decorations put up by the storefronts and private homes. I know I enjoyed driving around to see it all.” The point of the Festival of Lights was to celebrate the holiday season as a community, Colello said. Last year, an effort was to revamp the parade itself and the efforts were successful with over 25 different floats with hundreds of people on the streets to watch. But, how can these festive events survive a surge in Covid cases and the mandating of social distancing and limiting crowd sizes? FESTIVE, Page 2A
Festival of Lights
HOMELESS SHELTER IDEAS — CrossWalks Community Outreach board members Joanne Moore and Becky Behlen hosted a workshop on homelessness. The group brainstormed that one solution was converting a vacant building to create a transitional housing unit. (De Busk Photo)
‘Lack of homes’ is the issue Workshop targets possible solutions
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — People might be surprised that in a tourist town like Naples that a homeless person was sleeping on a bench on the Causeway this summer. Yet, homelessness is a reality that is not confined to the city. It has become a reality in rural areas, too. There is a lack of affordable housing that is contributing to this problem. CrossWalk Community Outreach hosted a homelessness workshop, which was held in the gymnasium of the Naples town hall on Monday. The objective was to identify some solutions to help people — not just individuals but also families — who are homeless. Transitional housing was suggested as one of the needs. Also, it was recommended that towns should work together to get the funding for and to build a transitional housing unit that serves the region. This summer, a homeless woman was picked up on the Causeway and
dropped off at the town office, according to CrossWalk board member Joanne Moore. The woman had arrived in the area after being turned away from shelters that were at capacity in Portland. She was allowed to stay in the Naples gymnasium for two days because all the hotels rooms were booked, according to Naples Town Manager John Hawley. Hawley talked about the process people in need go through to get assistance at the town level. He talked about the town’s General Assistance fund. This fund does not give money directly to the person in need but pays the entity providing the service such as heat or food or a bed for the night. “We can only fix the problem if there is a solution at the other end. There has to be a place to stay. When someone comes looking for place to stay, yes, we have funds to help with rent but there has to be a place to stay,” Hawley said. “It is easy to pay someone’s electric bill because there is CMP on the other end. It is easy to
help with food. We give them a voucher for Tony’s [The Umbrella Factory Supermarket].” “It is not so much the homelessness. It is the lack of homes that is the issue,” he said, adding that it is difficult to find a decent, heated 2-bedroom apartment in the area for under $1200. Also, the General Assistance budget runs out quickly when the money is used to pay full price for hotel rooms. The town has been housing two people in a hotel for nearly 10 weeks, he said. Money from the general assistance fund cannot pay for a person’s mortgage. Therefore, if someone is behind on their home payment, the town cannot help with that bill. Pat Scully, a volunteer at CrossWalk food pantry asked about the housing market. “From your experience, what is the availability of housing? We have friends who are brokers who say they have never been so busy. People are buying homes in this area, driven SOLUTIONS, Page 3A
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Diane True has been through the ordeal of being homeless. “It is winter. There is Covid. People are sleeping in the parking lot of the Naples post office. It is tragic. It is frightening. It is horrible. Until you’ve been there, you don’t understand how it feels when you are driving around trying to figure out where to park the car to sleep for the night. Most people get in their car after work and drive home,” True said.
“I want to make the next chapter in my life about having my home available for people” who would otherwise be homeless, she said. True is a former kindergarten teacher who lived through being homeless in 2019 and 2020. She was forced to leave her home when it went into foreclosure. (She has since regained ownership of her house in Windham.) “One thing led to another. I retired from teaching and I got a divorce. My home went into foreclosure, and
I found myself homeless,” True said. The foreclosure process started in May 2019, and that is when she lost the home where she had lived for 40 years and she became homeless — sleeping in her car, staying at friends’ homes, and spending some of the winter in a motel room after a friend set up a GoFundMe page for her. On one hand, there was the warmth and support of real friends who opened their homes to her. On the other hand, there was the bureaucracy that frusHOMELESS, Page 3A
Living through being homeless
Despite Covid surge, SAD 61 stays optimistic
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer If Al Smith and Paul True could peer into a crystal ball and see what the next few months hold in regards to the current pandemic, they could paint a clearer picture as to what is ahead for full-time inperson instruction and athletic competition. Smith, SAD 61’s superintendent of schools, continues to work with administrators in developing a plan to bring students back to local schools full-time on Jan. 11. Before parents can make decisions whether to send their children to school or pick a remote instruction
plan, Smith knows families need information to make an informed decision. “We’re meeting every day working on pieces (of the plan),” Smith told the School Board Monday night. “Administrators and staff have done a good job putting these pieces together. The plan is moving forward, but it doesn’t mean we will be able to implement it on Jan. 11 if things change.” Change, meaning a continued surge in new Covid numbers that have already pushed some sections of Maine from green to yellow status — meaning a shift to remote learning.
“We need to show parents what it will look like,” Smith added. To do that, videos will be developed focusing squarely on what will take place in each school. Once available for review, Smith will welcome parent conversation. Another question parents will be asked is whether their child or children will be utilizing SAD 61 bus transportation. Smith pointed out that SAD 61 currently has Kindergarten and Grade 1 students attending in-person five days a week, along with students in Vocational Center, Special Education and Alternative Education.
Smith suggested that the next board meeting be held via Zoom on Dec. 7, but to do an in-person meeting on Dec. 21 to discuss the plan and parent questions — “unless something dramatically changes,” said Smith, again outlining guidelines SAD 61 has in place in terms of staff and out-of-state travel over the upcoming holidays, which includes quarantining and providing a negative Covid19 test result. For Paul True, the ability to make changes at a moment’s notice has been his daily challenge as Athletic Director. While the fall season was dramatically different than in
past years, at least there was a season. “I was really stressed out,” True told the school board regarding what was ahead as Lake Region rolled out an athletic program with the pandemic still in our midst. “I am so thankful to report zero issues thanks to our parents and coaches. We spent more
time dealing with life and the emotional impact on kids and less on fundamentals and X’s and O’s. Coaches did an outstanding job.” True said he was thankful for the opportunity for student-athletes to have some kind of normalcy in their lives and to finally be able to smile. SAD 61, Page 4A
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