People on Aroostook County roads may have done a double-take this week to see a line of century-old cars loping along at 30 mph.
It’s all part of the Downeast Chapter, Model T Ford Club of America’s Mainely T Tour, which brought 26 of the cars and their owners from the eastern U.S. and Canada to northern Maine.
The tour, which started Tuesday and ends Saturday night, is the first Presque Isle has hosted solely for Model T’s. Previous vintage car tours have brought a tourism boost to Aroostook, which is one of the only regions that saw increased overnight visits this summer, according to new Maine tourism data released Thursday.
The Model T idea sparked during a 2023 tour in the region, said Craig Green of Presque Isle, president of the Antique Automobile Club of America’s Maine chapter, which is hosting the event with the city, the Presque Isle Historical Society and the Downtown Revitalization Committee.
“Some participants came to our area in 2023 for the vintage tour, and they made the suggestion to the Model T group to come here for the event,” Green said. “With the AACA, we sponsor tours and things all over the U.S. [throughout] the year. This is the first time that a Model-T-only tour has been here.”
Henry Ford’s creation of the Model T in 1908 ushered in the era of automobiles average Americans could afford. Ford produced 15 million of the cars from 1908 to 1927, Green said.
Cars on the tour range from 1910 to the “newest,” built in 1927 near the end of the model’s production. The 55 participants hail from Maine, upstate New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Canada, he said.
Since arriving in the area Tuesday, the group has visited places such as Limestone, the former Loring Air Force Base and a local farm with antique tractors. On Friday they traveled to Portage Lake, and Friday night paraded in Presque Isle and joined a community celebration at the Aroostook Agency on Aging, which included a ceremony honoring first responders.
Chris and Nancy Landry of Hudson, New Hampshire, visited with their 1926 touring car, a convertible. They were drawn to Model T’s somewhat by accident when looking for a fun car. Now it’s “a bit of an addiction,” Nancy Landry said.
“We found one on eBay, of all places,” Chris Landry said. “There’s very few people who own a Model T who only own one Model T.”
They figure they’ve put 2,100 miles on the car this summer. And yes, they have another one at home.
Dave Loving of Mansfield, Massachusetts, and Theresa Poule of Cape Cod have joined other Mainely T tours, but haven’t been this far north, they said, standing beside their 1910 wood, black and gold Model T.
Loving demonstrated his turn signal — a wooden stick with a flag on the end.
“Looking at the crops and the scenery is breathtaking, and it’s interesting to know about the potatoes,” Poule said.
Both said they appreciated Green as the host and Kim Smith of the Presque Isle Historical Society for sharing stories of the area’s history.
“They’re really getting the entire experience here. They’re not only seeing the beautiful scenery, but they’re interacting with the people here and learning some of the history,” said Smith, who is also Presque Isle’s public information officer.
Many have said they want to return, which is exactly what organizers want to hear, she said.
Smith, who also serves on Aroostook County Tourism’s board, said such events not only promote The County but benefit the local economy, drawing overnight visitors.
The Maine Office of Tourism’s latest report reveals that of the state’s eight regions, Aroostook County and Bangor showed increases in overnight stays for the second quarter, the only two to do so.
“Tourism statistics suggest that when a visitor stays overnight, they’re putting approximately $600 into the local economy,” Smith said. “You’ve got 55 people times $600 times five nights — you can see the economic impact this is having.”
Tour members have enjoyed the activities and the area’s welcoming people, she said.
They were particularly moved by the Friday morning memorial walk at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, which paid tribute to those lost 25 years ago in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Green said.
He has been surprised that not all the participants are of retirement age. For instance, a 21-year-old from coastal Maine told them the only car he owns is a Model T, he said.
Green, a longtime vintage auto collector and enthusiast, is glad to see younger people involved in the antique car community, because newer generations will carry the hobby into the future.
The Maine chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America is already thinking ahead to next year, he said. They’re planning a one-of-a-kind tour for antique trucks to explore the North Maine Woods.
Whatever their age, antique car people have one thing in common: they tend to be laid back and eager to explore wherever they find themselves, Green said.
“I think that’s part and parcel of owning a 100-year-old car that goes 30 miles an hour,” he said. “You’re enjoying the experience and not in a hurry to get through life.”
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Twenty-five years ago, Surry resident Diana Merenda peered out of her office window in lower Manhattan’s Deutsche Bank building, connected by an overpass to the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
What she saw still brings her, and those with whom she shares her story, to tears a quarter of a century later.
“I looked out my window, and I saw the hole in the tower,” Merenda said Friday, recounting the experience for a small group of people at Ellsworth Public Library. “Smoke was everywhere. It was just astonishing. I said, ‘Oh my god, the pilot, how did he miss this building?’”
Merenda spoke at the library on Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of a watershed moment in the United States. The terrorist attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. quickly influenced everything from airport security to the country’s invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and U.S.-involved conflicts in other countries — wars and interventions that would kill more than 940,000 people across the Middle East between 2001 and 2003, according to an analysis by researchers at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs.
An additional estimated 3.6 to 3.8 million people died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones of the U.S.-led Global War on Terrorism, according to the analysis.
Others who worked in the Deutsche Bank building, and at least one of Merenda’s co-workers, were among the nearly 3,000 people who died in Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 350 New York City firefighters, and dozens more police officers, were killed in the attack.
Much of Merenda’s Friday talk revolved around the aftermath of 9/11 and the U.S. foreign policy decisions it helped shape for decades to come. For years, she searched for answers for why terrorists associated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes and killed thousands of civilians.
Merenda shared her criticism of U.S. foreign policy, and of Israel, in her library talk. She distributed a pamphlet to attendees that was highly critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and condemned the ongoing U.S. attacks on Iran, arguing they were done at Israel’s behest.
She also spoke Friday about her multiple health challenges since that day, including two cancer diagnoses in the two years following the attacks.
On the day of the World Trade Center attack, Merenda, originally of Brooklyn, was making copies on a bulky Xerox machine in her 17th-floor office when Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, roughly 14 minutes before 9 a.m. The copier shook, which Merenda, who had spent time in San Francisco, assumed was due to an ongoing earthquake. She ducked into a doorframe, as she’d learned to do in California.
But before the second plane, Flight 175, hit the south tower at 9:03 a.m., Merenda — who managed a team of seven professionals in a “high stress job” that involved designing bid proposals and marketing strategies — was still focused on work. She asked her supervisor if her team could move to the library, where they could isolate themselves from the distraction of the first crash.
But then she looked out her office window.
“By then, it was just after 9, and the second plane went into the number One World Trade,” Merenda said between tears. “I looked and there was just no doubt. This was not a mistake. I called my husband and there was no answer because nothing was really working. I did leave a message to say, ‘Ozzie, I’m not sure I’m going to get out — we’re under attack.’”
Merenda and her husband hosted their wedding reception at Windows on the World — a legendary restaurant with sweeping views of the Statue of Liberty and Hudson River on the 107th floor of the North Tower — just 10 years before she would witness the tragedy. Roughly 170 employees and guests who were at the restaurant died at the time of impact, according to NPR.
“Exquisite food, but every single person was dead,” Merenda said.
It was then that her supervisor determined their office, at 130 Liberty St., would need to be evacuated by stairs, as the elevators had stopped operating. But Merenda, who had recently had surgery on her knees, would struggle to descend the 34 flights of stairs — two for each floor — alone. Two of her coworkers, at her boss’ order, assisted the 52-year-old down to the lobby.
Once in the lobby, Merenda saw the building’s security officer.
“The security guard is there, and he’s not moving,” Merenda said. “He’s going to make sure that each and every person is out of that building. But then, that overpass crumbled and fell on him and killed him.”
One of Merenda’s coworkers also died that day. An equity analyst, who usually worked in Midtown, had a monthly “equity breakfast” hosted at Windows on the World. He, too, perished, she said.
Merenda, unfamiliar with much of her office’s surrounding area, wasn’t sure where to go. She decided to follow a herd of people who were fleeing the scene toward the river, wondering if the survivors thought they needed to escape Manhattan by swimming across the Hudson.
Instead, the New Jersey Transit rail service was evacuating people across the Hudson amid the mayhem. Passengers rode the rail system for free that day, Merenda said, describing an eerie silence that came with the survivors’ shock.
“I looked out the window and there was one field after another of hundreds of cots,” Merenda said. “These cots were in a row, absolutely pristine, with a white sheet and a blanket and a pillow. The thing is, they were all empty. New Jersey felt that they had to be ready to take these wounded people. But nobody came because they were dead.”
Upon arriving in Ridgewood, New Jersey, a roughly 20 minute commute from Manhattan via the train, Merenda’s friend picked her up. It was then that Merenda learned that the towers had collapsed.
Since the attacks, Merenda has survived a total of four cancer diagnoses, three of which required surgery. She still is in treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for skin cancer on her face.
Merenda’s priority following the attacks was to return to work — like many in the world of finance, she said. City officials at the time misled residents about what was disclosed this week, when New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released thousands of documents about the toxic air pollution that engulfed the area.
“They lied to us,” Merenda said of city officials in the attack’s aftermath. “There was a lot of money that was at stake. We just had a terrorist attack, we can’t have also have a collapse in the financial markets. To folks in power, with respect to financial markets, that is all they care about.”
Merenda was diagnosed with breast cancer in the year following the attacks and parotid cancer the year after that.
In the years after the attacks, Merenda was also concerned about the safety of her husband, Ozzie, who is Muslim. After the catastrophe, Islamophobia spiked, resulting in hate crimes and discrimination of Muslim people or those who were perceived to be Muslim, as was the case with Sikh Americans.
“I was in this attack, I felt attacked, so not only am I dealing with that, but I have to worry that maybe my husband might be killed out of hatred and ignorance,” Merenda said.
But it wasn’t until an even bigger threat hit New York, when the COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people worldwide, that Merenda and her husband left and found sanctuary in Surry.
]]>A Houlton man is suing the town for the third time over claims that officials have not released public data from surveillance cameras that were removed earlier this year.
Craig Harriman filed suit Friday in Aroostook County Superior Court, after the town gave no lawful reason for failing to produce data he had requested multiple times.
It’s the latest development in a case that appeared headed for resolution in October, when the town agreed to remove the cameras. Harriman has issued multiple Freedom of Access Act requests and two previous court filings, trying to discover how the town purchased and used its facial recognition video surveillance system that violated Maine surveillance law.
His most recent 12-month attempt to unearth emails regarding the surveillance camera decision-makers has failed, despite more than a dozen written and in-person FOAA queries.
Records being withheld without lawful exemption demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance, Harriman said in his current court filing.
This is not the first time the town has been accused of violating the state’s FOAA law. Houlton depleted its legal budget in 2025 handling Freedom of Access Act lawsuits filed by residents, former Town Manager Cameron Clark, who was later dismissed in December following his September arrest, said at the time.
This is Harriman’s third Rule 80B appeal, which is a Superior Court filing to challenge actions taken by government agencies. Each time he sought to enforce his right to inspect government records under Maine law.
Houlton resident Mark Lipscombe also filed a Rule 80B appeal last year related to documents he never received from his repeated FOAA requests about a police interaction with his minor child.
“Rather than conducting the diligent search required by FOAA, defendants appear to have cherry-picked certain documents while remaining silent on numerous categories of requested records,” Lipscombe said in the court documents.
In 2025, Lipscombe told the Town Council that filing a lawsuit was not his choice, but after exhausting every reasonable channel, he was forced to seek legal relief.
The court ruled in February that the Houlton Police Department had to release the body camera footage Lipscombe had requested.
In Harriman’s Friday court filing, he said the withheld records matter because they document what Houlton Police Chief Tim DeLuca knew about the surveillance project in 2021.
DeLuca, in February 2025, testified under oath that it was not a police department effort and that he had no idea about the project or its technical aspects, according to court documents.
“I am not asking the court to retry that testimony. I am asking for the public records that show who was in the decision-making process to spend taxpayer money on a camera system with facial-recognition features after Maine outlawed that technology,” Harriman said in his filing.
Clark gave Harriman an unofficial 22-page PDF last September that contained 2021 planning and installation communications and correspondence regarding the town’s surveillance cameras between DeLuca, former Town Manager Marian Anderson and former town information technology staffer Scott Rosignol.
The emails “demonstrated that Chief DeLuca was addressed and or copied on communications concerning the planning and acquisition of the surveillance system from the outset,” the documents state.
Harriman submitted a formal FOAA request to DeLuca on Oct. 8, copied to the town clerk and town manager, seeking all electronic communications between DeLuca and Rossignol concerning town surveillance cameras and school cameras throughout 2021.
On Oct. 23, the town gave Harriman some of the emails, but when he compared them to the packet he obtained from Clark, several were missing, he said.
Omissions included correspondence that specifically referenced setting up times for Verkada camera demonstrations, details specifically citing facial recognition technology and notes directed specifically to DeLuca that said, “Chief DeLuca, I think that you will be excited to hear about the features it has for identifying individuals.”
Harriman again wrote to DeLuca to request all the correspondence, noting that some documents were missing.
In the ensuing months, the town claimed it had given Harriman all the documents. Harriman disagreed, and repeatedly wrote to DeLuca and Interim Town Manager Nancy Ketch requesting the missing documents, Friday’s filing stated. He received none.
Harriman attended several Town Council meetings to express frustration and request the missing documents. He shared his FOAA requests and town response with each councilor.
Ketch told Harriman in an Aug. 26 email that he had received all the documents related to his request.
“I am sorry if some items you previously received from the first distribution were not included in the second distribution,” she wrote. “As I previously stated, all records were reviewed internally and in good faith to obtain the requested documents. Any missing documents provided from the second request were inadvertent. Again, you have received all documents from the Town, so the request was fulfilled.”
Harriman is asking the court to declare that Houlton violated the Maine Freedom of Access Act and order the immediate production of all the remaining records he asked for.
If any are withheld, he is asking the court to order the town to explain why in writing, as required by Maine law. He also wants the town to confirm in writing that they completed a thorough search of DeLuca’s email account, relevant town and police servers and archives related to the documents he requested.
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A popular Searsport restaurant and bar that has anchored the coastal town’s downtown revival in recent years abruptly went dark this week, prompting online speculation about its future.
Hey Sailor! was not open during its regular hours Friday and its official internet pages have disappeared. In addition to serving food and drinks, the space hosted local events and musicians.
Charlie Zorich and partner Kirk Linder opened the establishment in 2022 and expanded it the next year to include the Starboard Lounge event space, helping to kickstart a revitalization of Searsport’s Main Street.
Attempts Thursday and Friday to contact Zorich and Linder were unsuccessful.
The partners previously operated The Hichborn restaurant, which they closed last year, in neighboring Stockton Springs. That property sold in July for $695,000, according to deed registry and state property transfer tax documents.
A two-year state rebuild of Route 1 through Searsport’s Main Street in 2023 and 2024 created traffic disruptions — one lane for northbound traffic and a lengthy detour for southbound travelers — that created significant operating challenges for Hey Sailor! and other neighboring businesses.
“Right until they closed the road, it was working,” Linder told the BDN in February about the project’s impact on their business.
The restaurant’s Main Street building has been for sale since last summer, when Zorich told the Bangor Daily News they planned to stay open until a sale went through. A $1.1 million online listing was still active and ‘for sale’ signs remained in the window Friday.
The restaurant’s website and social media pages were all deactivated this week.
The property’s listing agent, Dick Butler, declined to comment Friday on whether the restaurant had closed permanently. Calls to Hey Sailor! went to voicemail Thursday and Friday, and a text message was not returned.
An outgoing voicemail message at the restaurant says it is open from 4-8 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. But as of late Friday afternoon, the restaurant entrance was locked with shades drawn over the windows.
]]>A Brunswick man has been charged with murder and criminal use of explosives in connection with the fatal shooting of his neighbor earlier this month.
The Brunswick Police Department received a 911 call at 5 Valerie Ave. reporting gunshots shortly before 1 a.m. on Sept. 1.
Officers found a deceased man on the property, identified by state police on Friday as 48-year-old James Smith of Brunswick. The state medical examiner determined that Smith died of a gunshot wound. His death was ruled homicide.
On the night of the shooting, police arrested the resident of 5 Valerie Ave, identified on Friday as 58-year-old Keith Brunelle, on a bail violation. He was released after posting bail.
After an investigation, state police detectives got an arrest warrant for Brunelle. They arrested him on Friday morning at a residence in Augusta, reportedly without incident.
Brunelle was charged with murder and criminal use of explosives. He is being held at Cumberland County Jail without bail, according to state police.
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A Maine man is facing 34 federal charges for allegedly using drones armed with fireworks and explosives to injure people.
Joshua Brydon, 39, of Woodland, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on 34 charges. He is scheduled for a first appearance Thursday, Sept. 17, in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor. The charges come nearly two years after he was charged in state court.
Brydon is charged with one felony count each of transportation of explosives with intent to injure or intimidate any individual or to destroy property; and possession of an unregistered destructive device. He is charged with 14 felony counts of operating as an airman without an airman’s certificate; 16 felony charges of owning an aircraft that is knowingly operated when the aircraft is not registered; and two felony counts of operating an aircraft when the aircraft is not registered.
He was first arrested by Maine State Police in October 2024 after an 18-month-long investigation. He was allegedly using improvised explosives and incendiary devices to target people in the Aroostook County town he lived in.
Brydon had a pallet of assorted fireworks that he used to injure and intimidate four people, as well as damage and destroy a building, a vehicle, real estate and personal property of those four people.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office asked for Brydon to be forced to forfeit four drones. He used the drones between June 2022 and April 2024, according to the indictment.
Several devices were dropped by drone, while others were placed by hand or thrown, state police said at the time. Brydon is charged in Aroostook County court with five counts of arson, one count of attempted arson, six counts of criminal use of explosives, two counts of stalking and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
That case is scheduled for a jury trial in December.
]]>Voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District this week began getting text and phone messages telling them to vote against Democratic candidate Matt Dunlap and for Republican Paul LePage.
Those messages are coming from Elon Musk’s super political action committee.
The spending by Musk’s America PAC marks the latest attempt by the world’s wealthiest person to influence potentially key congressional races in Maine and its first foray in the 2nd District race.
The America PAC is already spending to help reelect Republican Sen. Susan Collins as part of a larger push by Musk to ensure Republicans maintain control of Congress.
So far, Musk’s spending on both races is relatively modest — $200,000 on the Senate race and $21,000 on the 2nd District contest. But the early expenditures are part of what’s expected to be a $120 million effort to shape outcomes in midterm races across the country.
Meanwhile, Democrats targeted by the attacks have tried to use them in their own messaging by claiming Musk is trying to buy the election and extract policies and government contracts favorable to his various tech ventures, including development of artificial intelligence.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
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Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey found that two police officers were justified when they shot at, and injured, a man who allegedly led them on a chase and shot at them last year.
The encounter happened on Dec. 14, 2025, across several central Maine towns, ending in Augusta.
Dustin Smith, 33, was wanted at the time for allegedly trafficking scheduled drugs, having a firearm illegally, terrorizing, assault, and violating conditions of release.
A notice issued to area police two days before the incident said Smith had two guns and had made comments to his parents about “suicide by cop.” Smith had also allegedly made threats against an Augusta police detective who was investigating a drive-by shooting. Police were notified that Smith was looking for a detective’s home address “to take them out,” according to the AG’s office.
On Dec. 14, 2025, Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Elijah Curtis tried to pull over a car based on a tip from a neighbor who said Smith might be one of the four occupants. The car allegedly sped away.
Deputy Jeffrey Boudreau joined the chase and was able to identify the driver as Smith, who, during the chase, allegedly called 911 and threatened to kill everyone in the vehicle if police did not back off, the AG’s office said.
Smith allegedly fired a gun out the window of his car toward the deputies, as the chase continued through the Whitefield, Windsor and Cooper Mills area. He later claimed to have fired it into the air as a warning.
Police slowed Smith’s car by putting out spike mats, and a man and a woman reportedly got out of the car when Smith was making a turn. The chase ended on Allen Street in Augusta.
Smith allegedly exchanged gunfire with police. The Augusta detective who Smith had previously threatened rammed Smith’s car with a police vehicle pushing it into an adjacent parked truck, the AG’s office said.
Smith ultimately surrendered. He was taken to Maine General Medical Center and treated for what appeared to be a bullet graze to the left shoulder, the AG’s office said. A female passenger was taken into custody uninjured.
According to the AG’s office, Smith confirmed after the encounter that he had contemplated “suicide by cop” to avoid going to jail.
Deputy Boudreau told investigators from the AG’s office that he fired at Smith because he believed Smith was going to kill him. He noted that Smith had fired at him during the chase, and when he arrived at the Allen Street address, he saw the driver’s door of Smith’s car open with a pistol pointed directly at him.
Deputy Curtis told investigators he was scared for his life and feared he would never see his wife and children again, according to the AG’s office.
The AG’s office investigates all uses of deadly force by law enforcement officers.
Attorney General Frey concluded from the investigation that the deputies had acted in self defense, noting that they knew Smith was dangerous and did not return fire during the 27-mile chase, only shooting when Smith stopped on Allen Street and pointed a gun at both deputies.
The Maine AG’s office has never ruled against a police officer who has used deadly force.
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Someone reading Reza Namin’s press release might think that the Maine Indian Education school district has broken the code.
Test scores and chronic absenteeism rates there have seen a “significant multi-year turnaround,” according to Namin, making the tribal school district “a documented model worthy of national attention.”
To the media, on LinkedIn and on the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education’s website, Namin has boasted about the improvements at the three schools under his supervision, while also promoting his selection as one of 19 nominees for the National Association of School Superintendents power leadership award (the winner will be announced next month).
Namin’s numbers paint a rosy, but incomplete picture that is not reflective of testing performance school- or district-wide performance.
Maine Indian Education operates under dual jurisdiction of the state and federal Bureau of Indian Education and is overseen by a joint school board. Namin has led the district since 2021.
He’s used winter test scores to publicize the achievements of his district. The winter assessment is an optional third test that Maine students take, in addition to evaluations in the fall and spring. While the fall and winter tests gauge student progress and can help teachers adapt to specific needs of a class, the spring test indicates whether students have met or exceeded state benchmarks in math, reading and science.
Take the Indian Island School, in Penobscot territory, where Namin has highlighted two data points from winter 2026: “Mathematics proficiency rose from 36% to 49% schoolwide in a single semester”; and 90% of 7th graders “met or exceeded expectations in reading.”
The winter test is not measured against state expectations or benchmarks, and Namin did not explain what proficiency benchmarks he was using.
But using the state’s yardstick — the spring test for which the latest results are from 2025— Indian Island School’s performance has been declining.
In 2023, just over a third of the 50 students there met or surpassed state math expectations, according to data from the Maine Department of Education. The following spring, it was just over a quarter. A year later, spring of 2025, only 16% were proficient in math, according to the state.
And in the state’s reading assessment, about 60% of Indian Island students met state benchmarks over the last three years.
That’s not just 30 percentage points below what Namin reported. It’s 17 students who might be struggling.
Indian Island isn’t alone.
Across all three of the district’s schools, in both reading and math, the superintendent’s selectively highlighted numbers tell one story, while state statistics tell another.
Last year, those schools placed near, if not in, the bottom of the ranks statewide.
“A move from 36 to 26 to 16 percent in math over three years at a school that size can reflect the movement of two or three children as much as any change in instruction,” he said of the Indian Island results.
Namin isn’t wrong about this, said Jennifer Chace, the assistant director of the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation at USM. Chace, who has worked with schools across Maine on a variety of challenges, cautioned that the tribal district’s schoolwide results are too small to draw any sweeping conclusions.
But using grade-level results from the winter test, and ignoring schoolwide results from the spring test (the only one that shows how students perform against state benchmarks) is a double-standard.
Instead, Chace said those results are meaningful to individual students. Even if the trendlines aren’t accurate, the data is telling. And educators and officials should be paying attention to the fact, for example, that 74 out of 96 students at Sipayik Elementary school couldn’t do math up to state standards last year.
Namin furiously defends the performance of students in his district’s schools and the narrative he’s wrung from that even smaller sample size.
“Native students in this country have been misrepresented in the press for generations, most often defined by deficit and rarely by capability,” he wrote, continuing, “When our schools have something to celebrate, we say so plainly and directly to the people it belongs to. That is not spin; it is the correction of a long imbalance.”
He said the winter test scores he released, which exclusively show improvement, “reflects the data we are able to release publicly, and I would ask that you treat it as the complete record for publication.”
The selective choosing of positive indicators sows doubt, according to Chace.
“It shouldn’t be about creating a narrative of success, it should be about creating success,” she said.
Of course, test scores are not everything, and the tribal district isn’t alone.
Maine schools have only recently managed to salvage plummeting test scores and gruntingly push them back up.
And many experts decry a heavily reliance on test scores, arguing that they are an imperfect measure of student learning.
Still, students who go to school generally learn more and perform better on tests.
To that end, the district’s chronic absenteeism scores, which more closely aligned with those reported by the state, are worth celebrating. Data show that significantly fewer students were chronically absent last year compared with previous years.
“Kids who aren’t going to school, by and large, aren’t learning a whole lot,” Chace said.
Getting them in the door is the first step.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Reuben Schafir can be reached at rschafir@pressherald.com.
]]>A judge ruled in favor of the handler of a comfort dog who died in a hot car in Bangor.
Penobscot County Judge Bruce Mallonee found Brodie Hinckley not responsible for the death of Baxter, a 3-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever. He had been charged with a civil violation of animal cruelty after Baxter, a comfort dog, died in Hinckley’s hot car on May 28, 2025 at the Bangor Regional Communications Center.
Baxter, a 3-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, was supposed to provide comfort to Maine’s emergency dispatchers. Hinckley was then the emergency communications director for the Maine Department of Public Safety Communications.
Hinckley was accused of confining Baxter to an enclosed space in extreme heat, under Maine’s cruelty to animals law. Baxter spent more than four hours in the car that day without being checked on.
“It’s difficult for me to read [the subsection of law] as having no intent,” Mallonee said.
It appears Hinckley did not know the car had stopped running and was creating extreme heat, Mallonee said. There is no explanation for why the car stopped running and Mallonee said he cannot find that there was intent.
Hinckley resigned in October, in part because of death threats he and his family were receiving and because Bangor became a hostile work environment, he testified.
“What an awful thing to threaten a person with death because he had an accident and the animal died,” Mallonee said. “What an awful thing to torment his family. What an awful thing social media can be, and I’m just frankly, sir, very sorry that you have had to endure that.”
It’s unclear why the car was not running when Hinckley returned but the mystery of why the car was not on is not relevant to the case, because intent is not needed to prove the civil violation, Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney Anya Sproule said.
It doesn’t matter if Hinckley did or didn’t check on Baxter, as there wasn’t extreme heat in the car when he left the dog, his defense attorney Walt McKee said. Hinckley had controlled the climate of the car and testified that he was sure he had done so.
McKee declined to comment after the trial.
Hinckley arrived at the center around 9 a.m. that day and put Baxter in the car around 9:30 a.m. Staff had complained that the dog had been gassy, multiple witnesses testified. Baxter had pooped on the floor of the dispatch center as well that morning, they testified.
Baxter spent more than four hours in the car, a hybrid Ford Interceptor, that day, according to testimony. It was not the first time Baxter had been in the car for four hours or more, Hinckley testified. The dog had spent that amount of time in the car just a few weeks earlier.
The dog loved his kennel and was trained to be in it for hours at a time, including overnight, Hinckley testified.
When Hinckley left the center shortly before 2 p.m. that day, his key fob did not work to unlock the car. After he manually unlocked the door, he said it felt warm in the car and then he noticed Baxter was not moving, Hinckley testified.
Temperatures reached 82 degrees Fahrenheit in Bangor that day.
There were no safeguards in place to know if there was an issue with the vehicle, Hinckley said. He said he didn’t feel the need to check on Baxter because he had never done it before and had never had an issue before.
Maine State Police, which shares the building, documented the scene, Lt. Michael Johnston testified. He added that the state police chain of command decided to have Baxter’s body taken to a crematorium, driven in Hinckley’s car.
The cause of death was likely connected to Baxter being in the hot car, Sproule said. A necropsy, an animal autopsy, would not have made a difference in the case because there was no disagreement about Baxter’s likely cause of death, Sproule said.
State investigator, William Muggle, was not brought into the case until about June 18, he testified. Muggle was a humane agent with the state’s Animal Welfare Program, part of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
Video footage at the building deletes after seven days so it was gone by the time Muggle was brought in, he testified. The investigation took just under a month, Muggle said.
]]>NEW YORK (AP) — An Iranian American jeweler from New York has been released from prison in Iran, but he is prohibited from leaving the country, according to his family and federal officials.
Kamran Hekmati was let out of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on Sept. 5 after completing about half of a two-year sentence, his family recently wrote on a website advocating for his release.
The family said they are also “desperately afraid for his health and well-being” as he requires regular medical checkups to ensure his bladder cancer doesn’t relapse.
“The Iranian regime couldn’t care less,” the family wrote of Hekmati’s medical challenges. “Much like other wrongful detention cases in Iran, Kamran appears to be caught up in Iran’s traditional approach of detaining Americans to obtain political concessions from the US.”
Representatives for the family and the federal government didn’t say where Hekmati, who turned 62 in August, is currently staying in Iran.
But Shohreh Nowfar, Hekmati’s cousin in California, said Friday that the family is “excited” and hopeful his passport can be returned soon so he can leave the country, which has been at war with the U.S. and Israel for more than six months now.
“We continue to hope this is a signal from the Iranian side as to their willingness to send Kamran home,” added Kieran Ramsey, chief investigative officer at Global Reach, a U.S. nonprofit working on Hekmati’s case.
The Iranian American, who is also Jewish, owns a jewelry business in Manhattan’s Diamond District and has lived with his family for years in Great Neck Estates, on suburban Long Island.
He was arrested by Iranian authorities last July after having his passport seized while trying to fly out of the airport in Tehran that May.
Hekmati’s family says he was charged under an Iranian law that bans Iranian citizens from visiting Israel within the last 10 years. But they maintain his last trip to Israel was 13 years ago — prior to the passage of the law — for his son’s bar mitzvah.
“Mr. Hekmati did nothing wrong,” said U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi, a Long Island Democrat who advocated for the State Department to officially designate Hekmati as wrongfully detained earlier this year. “We cannot rest until he is reunited with his family.”
The State Department similarly called on Iran to lift its so-called exit ban so Hekmati can return to the U.S. It also said the country should “immediately release” Iranian American journalist Reza Valizadeh and other Americans “unjustly detained in Iran.”
Valizadeh’s lawyer, Ryan Fayhee, declined to comment Friday, citing the risks his client could face behind bars.
But in recent months, the journalist has sent voice messages describing conditions inside Evin prison, a high-security facility that holds many of the Islamic Republic’s political prisoners.
In an August recording, Valizadeh, who has been imprisoned since 2024, said prison officials have not allowed his family to visit for the past five months. He also said medical care is “almost non-existent,” save for the most basic medications.
“Diseases that were eradicated decades ago have returned inside the prison, including pulmonary and gastrointestinal tuberculosis,” he said in the voice message, which was shared by CBS.
Valizadeh also said that prior to his release, Hekmati had been granted a medical furlough for cancer treatment but was ordered back to prison after about a month, rather than being allowed to begin chemotherapy.
Like Hekmati, Valizadeh has also been officially designated wrongfully detained by the U.S. government. He was arrested after returning to Iran to visit his elderly parents and charged with collaborating with the U.S. government.
Valizadeh obtained U.S. citizenship in 2022 while working in Washington, D.C., for Radio Farda, the Persian-language arm of Radio Free Europe, which receives U.S. government funding. He is among at least nine reporters currently jailed in Iran, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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]]>Paul Butler, formerly the principal of Bangor High School, has been promoted to assistant superintendent of Bangor schools.
The Bangor School Committee unanimously approved Butler’s appointment at its Thursday night meeting.
The administrative switchup comes at a transitional moment for the school department, as the process to develop a new strategic plan is underway and aging school facilities push officials to decide whether to invest in preserving the neighborhood school system or consolidate schools.
Butler is replacing Kathy Harris-Smedberg, who spent about a decade in the role and served as interim superintendent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harris-Smedberg is joining the neighboring school district RSU 22, which includes Hampden, Newburgh, Winterport and Frankfort, as assistant superintendent.
Interviews with candidates for the principal position are “well underway,” Superintendent Marie Robinson reported at Thursday’s meeting.
Bangor High School’s two assistant principals, Brian Doyle and Tim Reed, will oversee day-to-day operations until a new principal is hired, according to department spokesperson Ray Phinney.
Butler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Several dozen presidential briefing documents declassified Friday, the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, detail intelligence government officials had gathered about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida leading up to the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people and upended American national security.
The documents illustrate security analysts’ tracking of bin Laden’s movements and support system, as well as concerns about possible threats to U.S. targets
Proclaiming “an act of exceptional transparency,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the documents were the agency’s single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs — the highly classified briefing prepared by the nation’s intelligence community for the government’s most senior leaders.
The documents range from a February 1998 file — prepared for then-President Bill Clinton — entitled “Terrorists seeking WMD capability” and mentioning “bin Ladin and other Islamic extremists” to a Sept. 12, 2001, report in which a source indicated the attacks had been planned for two years and had also targeted the U.S. Capitol.
Another, from just weeks before the attacks, details how al-Qaida’s “flexible operational decision making and broad definition of acceptable targets enable the group to adjust plans to changing conditions.”
Asked for comment on the release, the White House noted the release of another batch of documents by the National Archives, also Friday. That batch, including interviews with national security officials in the Clinton and Bush administrations, was a product of the commission that probed the attacks from 2002 to 2004.
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]]>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Bobbing for days atop a capsized skiff in Alaska’s frigid Bering Sea, a 15-year-old boy held on until he was rescued by a fishing vessel this week, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The boy’s brother and a cousin died sometime after the small boat flipped, according to the rescuers.
Their bodies were found after the teen was hoisted to safety near St. Lawrence Island — a remote Alaskan island that’s closer to Russia than it is to the United States.
The captain of the fishing boat, The Northwest Explorer, said the boy had clung to the skiff for close to three days. “That’s one tough kid,” Adam White told KTUU-TV in Anchorage.
Coast Guard planes and helicopters began searching for the skiff Monday morning after family members reported the three missing the night before. Authorities did not release the names of the three.
The group left St. Lawrence Island on Friday and planned to return early Sunday, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said one of its air crews spotted the boy Monday morning and deployed a raft and supplies before contacting The Northwest Explorer.
Video of the rescue shows the boy in a bright yellow jacket kneeling atop the overturned skiff. The boat’s crew tosses the boy a line, tugging the skiff closer until they can pull him into a rescue basket.
The boy was experiencing symptoms of hypothermia when he got onto the boat, the Coast Guard said.
The fishing boat crew warmed him with blankets and hot packs, its captain said.
“Through the teeth chattering, he had mentioned that his brother was still under the skiff,” White said. “And then he said that, in the previous night, before our rescue, that his cousin had slipped away.”
]]>BANGOR – Husson University’s SOARing Eagles Healthcare Clinic will reopen for the fall 2026 semester on Sept. 16-17.
The pro bono clinic, launched in 2014, provides free physical therapy to uninsured and underinsured patients in the Bangor area. Since its inception, the clinic has provided over $500,000 of physical therapy services at no cost to their patients. Physical therapy students run the clinic under the supervision of their Husson professors, gaining real-world, hands-on experience in a professional PT environment while also giving back to the community.
The clinic’s mobile PT boxes will also return this semester. Mobile PT boxes were introduced in the spring of 2026 with the help of the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation. The boxes allow students to conduct physical therapy screenings in other areas of the community and expand the clinic’s outreach.
“We are so pleased to continue bridging the gap for uninsured and underinsured patients in the greater Bangor community,” Kimberly Steinbarger, assistant professor in Husson’s School of Physical Therapy and director of the SOARing Eagles Healthcare Clinic, said. “Our patients are able to receive individualized holistic treatment, while our students prepare for the rigors of the workplace.”
The clinic will be open on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m. by appointment at 79 Marshall Road in Bangor beginning Sept. 16-17 and continuing through mid-December. For more information or to make an appointment, call 207-941-7181 or email steinbargerk@husson.edu.
]]>In the same place Presque Isle residents gathered to mourn the lives lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a quarter century ago, more than a hundred people returned Friday morning to remember that day and the events long burned into collective memory.
They came from different sects of the community: faculty, staff, students, first responders, locals, outsiders — including more than a dozen members of a Maine chapter of the Model T Ford Club of America, in town for the club’s annual statewide tour.
But under an American flag whipping in the wind at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, they stood with the shared purpose of reflection.
University President Ray Rice recalled how he learned of the attacks on the campus 25 years earlier, and the mutual shock that came after.
“In the days that followed, this community gathered at this flagpole, as communities did all across the country, not because we knew what to say, but because we knew we needed to stand together while we searched for those words,” Rice said.
Most of the school’s students were not yet born in September 2001. Both Rice and Presque Isle City Manager Sonja Eyler, who also spoke at the event, urged them to look back on the moment and what its aftermath has taught the country.
Members of the community (left) walk around the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s campus in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks. Presque Isle City Manager Sonja Eyler (top right) speaks to the gathered crowd. A color guard (bottom right) made up of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and Aroostook County sheriff’s deputies stands during the national anthem. Credit: Cameron Levasseur / BDN
“Each generation must learn not only what happened, but also what the day asks of us,” Eyler said. “It asks us to remember that peace is precious. It asks us not to take safety, freedom, or one another for granted. It asks us to recognize the sacrifice that is made by those who serve our communities … and it asks us to understand that unity is not something we should rediscover only in times of tragedy. It is something we must practice every day.”
After a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, Presque Isle’s police and fire chiefs led the assembled group on a memorial remembrance walk, which snaked through the campus and back to the flagpole.
“That walk is a simple act, but it carries meaning,” Eyler said. “We will move forward together while carrying the memory of those who can no longer walk beside us. As we do, I hope we reflect not only on the lives lost, but also how we choose to live.”
]]>A group tied to President Donald Trump’s massive political operation reserved at least $4.4 million in ads in the race between former Gov. Paul LePage and State Auditor Matt Dunlap for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
The reservations first appeared in tracking by AdImpact on Thursday and Friday and came from a group called Safety and Affordability PAC, which registered at the Federal Election Commission on Sept. 1, the same day as another Trump-connected group spending big elsewhere. The organizations have the same treasurer, compliance firm and media vendor.
It shows Maine as a top priority for national Republicans. The open 2nd District stands out as one of the party’s only realistic pickup opportunities on a midterm map that otherwise favors Democrats. However, the race has been overshadowed by a battleground U.S. Senate race.
The 2nd District has voted three times for Trump. LePage, a Republican, became the favorite after four-term U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat who held the seat despite its Republican lean, opted not to seek a fifth term. Dunlap won a close four-way Democratic primary in June.
The spending made Safety and Affordability PAC the third-biggest holder of ad reservations in the race, trailing only House Majority PAC’s $8.2 million backing Dunlap and the Congressional Leadership Fund’s $5.4 million backing LePage.
Total ad reservations in the race have topped $26.5 million since the start of last year, with Republicans holding a narrow edge, $13.9 million to $12.6 million, per AdImpact. The 2024 race between Golden and Republican Austin Theriault eclipsed $42 million in the highest-spending House race in Maine history.
AdImpact lists Safety and Affordability PAC’s media buyer as MHB Media, the same vendor it credits for No Going Back PAC‘s first broadcast buy this week, a Kentucky 6th District ad placed by the same firm, according to a screenshot shared by CNN’s Patrick Svitek.
The New York Times reported this week that No Going Back PAC is bankrolled by MAGA Inc., Trump’s flagship super PAC, which reported a $400 million war chest in July. Charles Gantt, a Republican compliance specialist who regularly organizes committees for Trump-aligned groups, is treasurer of both PACs, FEC filings show. Both list the same Massachusetts Bulldog Compliance and the same bank.
MAGA Inc. and the ad-buying firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The buy adds to a massive amount of national money flowing into Maine’s federal races this fall. Elon Musk’s political network began spending earlier this month to help Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. She and her allies are swamping opponent Troy Jackson in ad spending so far, with $132 million on the Republican side and $87 million on the Democratic one.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the registration status of Safety and Affordability PAC. It has filed with the Federal Election Commission.
]]>WASHINGTON (AP) — In a defeat for the Trump administration, a federal court on Friday ruled that the Energy Department exceeded its authority when it forced a Michigan coal-fired power to stay open past its scheduled retirement date last year.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell Generating Plant was needed to ensure reliable electricity in the region, and he used emergency powers to keep it operating. Environmental groups and three states — Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota — went to court to try to overturn orders keeping the plant online.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the states and the groups, saying there was no real emergency under the law.
The section of the Federal Power Act that allows emergency orders “is essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop,” Appeals Court Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel.
By reversing the Campbell plant’s “long and carefully planned retirement … the results are disruptive,” Pillard wrote. There was “no ‘emergency’ within the meaning” of the statute, she added.
The Michigan case is one several legal disputes that have emerged across the country as the Trump administration uses emergency powers to force a half-dozen coal-fired plants from closing.
The orders, which also apply to plants in Indiana, Colorado, Florida and Washington state, are raising ratepayer bills and adding air and water pollution that could have been avoided, critics say. An oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania was also ordered to keep its turbines running as a hedge against electricity shortages in the mid-Atlantic grid.
Keeping the Michigan plant open beyond its May 2025 retirement has cost about $259 million so far, according to new financial filings. Those losses will likely be paid by families and businesses in the Midwest, opponents of the order say.
Ted Kelly, U.S. clean energy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the court ruling rejected the Trump administration’s nationwide effort to force “unreliable, aging coal plants that are bleeding money and polluting communities to stay online.”
The Energy Department’s “unlawful actions attempted to make families and businesses in the Midwest wastefully pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a coal plant that should have been shut down over a year ago,” Kelly said Friday. The Campbell plant and other aging sites are “incredibly expensive, dangerous to our health and break down frequently,” he said.
Sanjay Narayan, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, called the ruling a victory for families across the Midwest who are “paying to keep this old, expensive and dirty power plant online.”
The Trump administration “has been pulling out all the stops to try to bolster dirty and expensive fossil fuels at public expense. This reckless agenda will not succeed,” Narayan said. “We will continue to fight back against the other illegal extensions across the country.”
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
]]>Three hundred and forty three American flags dotted the lawn outside Central Station of the Bangor Fire Department on Friday. Each flag, arranged in more than two dozen columns, represented a New York City firefighter who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
The flags, along with a folded set of firefighter equipment, were on the lawn of the fire station as part of a ceremony remembering the first responders who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Three events Friday in the Queen City commemorated the anniversary of 9/11; one at the Bangor International Airport, another at the Bangor Fire Department and a third on the Bangor Waterfront. The ceremony at the fire department acted as a remembrance for the more than 400 firefighters and police officers who died responding to the terrorist attacks in New York City.
At 8:46 a.m., the time when the first plane hit the North Tower, three rings of the bell outside the station echoed out. The rings symbolize the last call and return to quarters for a fallen firefighter. The rings were repeated two more times.
With Bangor, Brewer and Hermon firefighters standing alongside their fire engines, Bill Leighton, chaplain at the Bangor Fire Department, spoke about how many lives of community members, families and first responders changed on 9/11.
“Today, we honor all who were lost, all who served, and all those whose lives were forever changed. Although many years have passed, we gather here to make certain that their sacrifice on that day is never forgotten,” Leighton said.
Leighton, who was one of multiple speakers, said Friday was a “day of remembrance.” Conversations between community members in the crowd after the event showed that.
Small huddles of Mainers were sharing somber stories about what they were doing and their first reactions to seeing the 767s hit the North and South Towers after the event ended.
Like many others, Philip Drew, the Bangor City assessor, remembers where he was when the first tower was hit. Drew was working for the city and heard a report about a plane hitting the North Tower through a yellow radio.
At first, he thought someone had made a mistake by flying a small plane into one of the towers. When the second tower was hit, he knew it was an attack.
Members of the Honor Guard prepare to toll the bell as bunker gear rests in front of it during A Day of Remembrance ceremony at Central Station of the Bangor Fire Department marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN Felix, a Dalmatian, attends a remembrance ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with his owner, Tim Malikowski of Hampden, at Bangor Fire Department on Friday. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN Bangor Fire Department’s Central Station flies an American flag from Ladder 6 during A Day of Remembrance ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
For the next four years, Drew was part of the patriotism that grew from the attacks as one of roughly 350 troop greeters at the Bangor International Airport. Going to the airport at all hours of the day and night, the group met American soldiers at their gate and cheered for them as they came and went from the Middle East.
The energy the group of greeters had was so palpable that soldiers occasionally asked if they were there waiting for celebrities. Drew said he’d respond by saying, “No, we’re here for you.”
Drew is one of millions of Americans who, in Leighton’s words, will “always remember and never forget.”
The bell was tolled nine more times to end the ceremony.
]]>GREENVILLE — Construction has begun on a $1 million building on Pritham Avenue in Greenville that will serve as the future Lumbermen’s Museum for the Moosehead Historical Society.
The building is a gift from Greenville summer residents Ed and Arlene Jewett, who are providing $1 million for construction which will cover the exterior. The Moosehead Historical Society, which announced the gift last spring, will provide funding to finish the interior. The building itself will be known as the Jewett Family Building.
Moosehead Historical Society President Sean Billings said he and members of the society board were ecstatic to learn about Jewetts’ plan to donate a building.
“This is an amazing opportunity not just for the historical society but for the town of Greenville, too,” he said. “A million dollar building here is a game changer for this town.”
“This gift gives us the opportunity to tell one of the most important stories in the Moosehead region — the story of the forest, the lake, and the people whose work helped build these communities,” historical society Executive Director Luke Muzzy said. “The forest economy is not just our past. It is still part of who we are today. The Jewett Family Building will allow us to preserve that heritage properly and share it with future generations.”
The Jewetts said they decided to make a significant gift to the community but initially had no idea what it would be. A conversation with Muzzy brought the idea into focus. The couple had stopped at the historical society office to make their annual $1,000 donation. As the three of them were discussing the society’s goals and wish lists, Muzzy mentioned the growing need for a larger building for the current Lumbermen’s Museum.
“We were looking at him and then looked at each other and said, ‘That’s it,’” Arlene recalled.
The project also suits Ed, who has a master’s degree in forestry, and experience which ties in nicely with the history of the lumber industry.
“We’re just happy making a contribution to the community,” Ed, who founded Jewett Construction in 1972, said. The firm, now run by the couple’s son Craig, handles large construction projects for companies including Chevrolet, BMW, Cumberland Farms and the Boy Scouts of America, to name a few. Located in Fremont, New Hampshire, the firm has won several awards for building excellence.
“We reject complacency and push the boundaries of what the industry believes is possible,” the company website says. “As creators, innovators and visionaries, we strive not just to build, but to build better, more efficiently, stronger, faster and more cost-effectively.”
Because of Ed’s experience in construction, he is serving as general contractor for the project and using his contacts and experience to trim costs so that the historical society gets a maximum benefit from the money being donated.
“We’ve been able to get some pretty good discounts,” Ed noted.
Arlene added that Ed’s work on the project also added value.
“It would have cost a couple hundred thousand to hire someone,” she said.
Among the subcontractors involved in the project are Skip Davis, an electrician based in Guilford; Chick Brown of Brown’s Plumbing in Blanchard; Mark Freeman of York and Shirley, carpenter Nathan Hebert of Sangerville; and civil engineer Kurt Neufeld of Brunswick.
“The whole team of them are excellent,” Ed said, adding he has worked with them all before.
He also praised Billings for his work designing the building and submitting documents to the necessary authorities.
“I’ve got to tell you how valuable Sean is to the museum, because of the work he does,” Ed said.
The Jewetts said their daughter Kellie Jewett is handling the bookkeeping for the project.
Local people have also stepped up, including Lisa and Woody Bartley, who own the Bartley Event Center in Greenville.
“They’ve donated space in one of their buildings for a paint lab,” Ed said, noting that painting must be done somewhere protected from the weather.
“He (Woody) was even painting,” Arlene added. “They’re really generous and really community minded.”
The couple also praised Hammond Lumber in Greenville.
“They’ve been very aggressive in finding the materials for this,” Ed said. “They’re a good supplier.”
For example, the building needs 12-foot sections of wood, and Hammond has delivered even though it can be difficult to get that much lumber in such a long length.
Already, crews have faced several challenges. For one thing, the building site sits in a low spot, which Ed described as a “bowl.” As a result, crews needed 2,000 yards of crushed slate for fill in order to create a stable foundation.
Ed said he hopes to have the historical society building under cover before winter. However, they lost time during the permitting process. So they are working as fast as they can.
“We’re going to push,” he said.
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