City and School Hold Joint Workshop

May 25, 2006
By Greta Sproul

  A joint budget workshop held Monday night at the Old Town Public Library was the setting as the city council and the school board met to discuss ways to reduce their respective budgets. Cuts on both sides of the table are being driven by the need to make up for tax revenue lost in the wake of the closing of the G-P mill in Old Town. On the municipal side, city manager Peggy Daigle has already outlined multi-tier budget cuts, the first tier of which would eliminate proposed funding for a Parks and Recreation Director, shut down the city pool, and either eliminate or reduce funding for other city personnel positions. The first tier of cuts, coupled with the revenue the city gets from things such as burn permits, code enforcement permits, and excise tax, would reduce the city budget by $629,994. ...more

Area’s Letter Carriers Top In Speed and Efficiency 

May 25, 2006
By Greta Sproul

 Picture it: A frigid, blustery, wind-whipped morning in the latter part of February here in the Old Town-Orono area. Despite the incessant cold and the debilitating bluster, letter carriers are out on the streets, doing what they have done ever since the inception of the United States Postal Service--delivering the mail. But not only are they making their way from house to house, bringing news, information, bills, and, yes, the inescapable junk mail, to each and every occupant, they are doing it at record speed for their district level. It is because of that speed in delivering the local mail during last February’s brisk weather that local postmaster Kevin Clark and his intrepid band of letter carriers have been acknowledged by the United States Postal Service as having made the most deliveries per hour for a level 21 post office here in the Northeast. ...more

A Love of Reading and of Children Were Sharen Wilson’s Gift

May 11, 2006
By Greta Sproul

In “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn,” Betty Smith‘s classic coming-of-age novel published in the 1940s, there is an important scene that takes place at the neighborhood library in which the main character, Francie spends much of her time. Francie is a girl from a poor family for whom the lure of education is so strong that she lies about her address in order to enroll in one of Brooklyn’s better schools. When she’s not in school, Francie is hunkered down in the library, reading her way through the alphabetically arranged bookshelves. But then, one day, as she approaches the librarian’s desk with an impossibly dull medical reference book from the “B’ section, the librarian slides a story book about the adventures of medieval knights on top of it. ...more

City and School Budgets Discussed At Public Meeting

May 11, 2006
By Greta Sproul

Questions about what will have to go in the next round of cuts dominated the city and school board budget meeting held at the Old Town Public Library last Wednesday night. High emotions were evident as Old Town residents, teachers, and students took the floor during the joint meeting of the city council and the school board. ...more

Archie Rivers Named "Regular Ed Teacher Of The Year"

May 4, 2006
By Greta Sproul

After 20 years of teaching Old Town Regional students the art of wood crafting, Archie Rivers has been recognized for his work with the title "Regular Ed Teacher of the Year." The Minnesota-born Rivers is a former construction worker whose expertise and ability to communicate ideas and directions first caught the attention of Dr. Murray Shulman, who approached him and broached the subject of becoming the vocational shop teacher at Old Town Regional.
"I'd never thought of being a teacher before that," Rivers said. "But I guess Dr. Shulman just saw something in me." ...more

Go Figure: Joe Shlick Retiring As City's Finance Director

May 4, 2006
By Greta Sproul