January
• Presque Isle City Council approved a $13.1 million budget for 2008. The final figure was up just over $1.5 million from 2007, with much of the increase due to fuel purchases and sales at the Northern Maine Regional Airport. The budget reflected about a 2.6 increase over 2007 and was below the $52,000 LD-1 limit. • Adam, Ashley and Austin Clark, of Rocky Mount Va., performing as the Clark Brothers, were named the winner of Fox’s television program “The Next Great American Band.” The Clarks, whose father hails from Mars Hill, were born in Presque Isle.
• TD Banknorth, through the TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation, announced it would contribute $100,000 to Northern Maine Community College’s Campaign for the County’s College for increased access to healthcare education for residents of northernmost Maine.
• Only minor injuries were reported when a bus carrying 16 students and the driver rolled over in Mapleton due to slick road conditions.
• Students picked hydroponic tomatoes at the SAD 1 School Farm.
• Tara Tate, daughter of Shasta Knox and Travis Tate Jr., of Presque Isle, was the first baby of the new year born at The Aroostook Medical Center.
• City officials presented a bypass alternative to representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers and Maine Department of Transportation.
• City Council voted to keep Walt Elish as Council chairman and Ed Nickerson as deputy chairman for 2008.
• The Maine Tree Farm Committee announced Laurence Park, of Presque Isle, had been named Maine Outstanding Tree Farmer for 2008.
• Shutdowns were announced at mills operated by Fraser Papers Inc., in Ashland, and J.D. Irving Limited, in Nashville Plantation, leaving approximately 140 employees without a job indefinitely. Officials with the mills blamed a slump in the national housing market for the closures.
• Students at Pine Street Elementary School donated three pet masks to the PIFD for use in resuscitating pets in the event of an emergency.
• The Maine Potato Board created an agricultural engineer position through a partnership of three entities – the MPB, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Department of Agriculture.
• McCain Foods donated an emergency vehicle to the American Red Cross – Pine Tree Chapter.
• Fort Fairfield farmer Steve Bubar, looking for ways to make his cropland more productive, considered the possibility of a wind farm on his property.
• Mars Hill Council approved a $1.2 million municipal budget.
February
• Due to rising operating costs and funding issues, the American Red Cross announced it would be closing its Presque Isle office and moving to a space in Caribou where it will be in closer proximity to other emergency agencies.
• Presque Isle’s City Council unanimously approved the purchase of the Red Cross building on Riverside Drive for $3,000.
• The Andy Santerre Sno-Run to benefit AMHC’s sexual assault awareness program was joined by the heir of a racing dynasty, Jeffery Earnhardt (who drives for Santerre Motorsports), grandson of Dale Earnhardt Sr.
• SAD 32 voters gave their approval for the construction of a new consolidated school.
• Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins requested assistance for displaced mill workers in Ashland and Nashville Plantation through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program.
• A tractor-trailer truck driven by Michael Carpenter, 38, of Weston, New Brunswick, went out of control due to road conditions on Route 11, skidded through a parking lot before slamming into an eight-unit building at Dean’s Motor Lodge in Portage. Both truck and building were considered total losses.
• Raynold and Sandra Gauvin, of Mapleton, members of the NMCC Foundation Board of Directors, established the Ray and Sandra Gauvin Faculty Advancement Fund with a pledge of $25,000, with the initial pledge of $15,000 used to order laptop computers for instructors.
• A State Road home owned by Daniel Dennett was destroyed by fire.
March
• The Maine Coalition to Save Schools continued its effort to collect signatures in the Mars Hill area to repeal the school consolidation law.
• Presque Isle City Council agreed to recommend a modified version of option 2X that would bypass the city to the east to MDOT and the Army Corps of Engineers following more public comment at Council’s first March meeting.
• Presque Isle City Council heard the results of a recent survey of city residents, conducted by students and faculty of UMPI, learning that overall citizens are satisfied with services offered in the community.
• A donor wall was constructed at Northern Maine Community College to recognize contributors to the Campaign for the County’s College.
• Erin Buck, of Caribou, was named the winner of the 2007 Aroostook Idol competition, sponsored by the United Way of Aroostook.
• With Maine Public Service’s new $1 million substation going online from its location in the Industrial Park, the company began the process of upgrading service to customers on the west side of the Presque Isle Stream.
• UMPI moved ahead with a $1.7 million project to renovate Folsom Hall, including upgrades to doors and windows, with the contract for the work going to A&L Construction, of Presque Isle.
• Westfield received a $10,000 community planning grant to be used for surveys to determine how best to revitalize the town.
• The Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library prepared to celebrate its 100th anniversary on March 16.
• The Megan Bradstreet Fund provided $10,000 worth of needed pediatric emergency care equipment to hospital emergency rooms and first responders across Aroostook County.
• Presque Isle City Council approves a TIF for BLD Properties LLC, of Yarmouth, developers of the site once home to the armory on Main St. The developers plan to build a Hampton Inn at the site.
• Stephen Lewis was named Fort Fairfield’s 2008 Citizen of the Year at the annual Chamber of Commerce dinner.
• Two departments of the Aroostook County Action Program (ACAP) – Health & Nutrition and HEALTH 1st – announced they would be consolidating services under one new title, ACAP Health Services.
• March storms helped break a snowfall record of 181.1 inches that had stood since 1955. By Saturday, March 22, the Caribou Weather Service reported 182.5 inches of snow had fallen, with more expected before warm weather arrived. Presque Isle officials worked to clear snow from the Public Safety Building roof to prevent damage from the record accumulation.
• High winds were blamed for destroying two-thirds of a cattle barn on the Garfield Road in Masardis, belonging to John and Noella Craig, killing about 20 head of cattle and leaving nearly 70 out in the cold until the barn could be repaired or replaced.
• Gail Gibson, principal at Mapleton Elementary School, was presented a SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) Honor Roll program certificate for her commitment to serving the needs of gifted students. SAD 1 announced it would be getting less financial aid from the state.
• The United Steelworkers Union, representing laid-off workers at the Irving Forest sawmill, located in Nashville Plantation, established a food bank for displaced mill workers at the Oddfellows Hall on Main St. in Ashland.
• Gov. John E. Baldacci visited Big Rock in Mars Hill to help celebrate the one-year anniversary of the mountain’s wind farm.
April
• Easter, a calf born on Easter Sunday, served as a turning point for farmers John and Noella Craig, of Masardis. Having lost a third of their cattle when high winds caused a barn to collapse, the pair found inspiration to go on following the calf’s birth.
• The Fort Fairfield Town Council heralded 2008 as the Town of Fort Fairfield Sesquicentennial throughout the community and encouraged all citizens to participate in the festivities.
• Michaela Powers was crowned 2008 Junior Miss Mapleton and Hannah Cheney was named 2008 Miss Mapleton.
• During the April 7 City Council meeting, Community Center Committee Chairperson Kevin Sipe announced a site had been selected for Presque Isle’s new Community Center – the corner of Riverside Drive and Chapman Road, across from the Presque Isle District Court.
• Hana Plourde, a seventh-grade student at Presque Isle Middle School, had her artwork selected for printing in the 2008 Maine recycling calendar.
• The SAD 32 Board of Directors awarded a bond anticipation note for the construction of a new pre-kindergarten to grade 12 school to KeyBank.
• Germaine Scott won the title of 2008 Miss Presque Isle.
• Stephen and Tabitha King, through their Foundation, provided a $5,000 grant to the Healing Hearts Ranch in Mars Hill to be used for equipment to the local youth facility to better educate residents on the issues of pregnancy, drug prevention and child abuse prevention.
• Maine Public Service unveiled plans for a $400 million transmission line to better serve the electrical needs of Aroostook County. The line would connect Aroostook to the rest of the state, providing a direct link for new energy business – including Aroostook Wind’s proposed wind farm in Bridgewater – to the grid serving New England, bringing jobs to the area and helping keep energy costs down. It was expected to take a couple of years to reach completion.
• Twenty-three employees at the Huber Engineered Woods, LLC (HEW) plant in Easton were laid off, in part due to the slump in the housing market.
• Hanna Patterson was selected as 2008 Junior Miss Presque Isle.
• Madison Bearden was crowned 2008 Little Miss Presque Isle.
• As part of its Substance Abuse Initiative, the United Way of Aroostook awarded over $70,000 to local programs that address substance abuse problems in the County.
• Alan Moir, of Woodland, accepted the 2007 Young Farmer of the Year award at the Maine Potato Board’s annual dinner and meeting.
• The Sportsman’s Show saw record attendance, with over 7,000 people taking part in the event held at Gentile Hall at UMPI April 5 and 6, with a record number of children participating in the kid-friendly festivities.
• JoLonna Gough and Dani Wolland, students at PIMS, attended the Maine Women’s Policy Center’s 12th annual Girl’s Day at the statehouse March 27.
• SAD 1 eyed a staff reduction to balance the budget.
• SAD 1 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said rumors the school planned to take over the Presque Isle Indoor Pool and Forum were just that – rumors. Until the city sends a letter requesting the School Board consider such, Johnson said the district had no plans to do so.
• Good Shepherd Food Bank delivered about 30,000 pounds of food to an Ashland food bank for distribution to area mill workers displaced when two local mills shut down recently.
• County administrators consider jail consolidation savings to be a myth, with more burden being put on the Aroostook County Jail, under the measure, with regard to added expenses.
• The Maine Agri-Women broke tradition April 11 and presented two 2008 Maine Agri-Women of the Year Awards during the 22nd annual Maine Potato Board meeting and dinner, with Mary Adams and Carol Adams being selected for the honor.
• UMPI unveiled a number of photographs gifted to the institution by the Andy Warhol Legacy Foundation.
• The Presque Isle Public Works Department faced a $100,000 shortfall due to the added expense of maintaining city roads and streets following the winter’s record snowfall.
• John Cariani’s “Almost Maine” was performed by the Belfast Maskers, in Belfast, with proceeds from one show going to benefit Presque Isle’s HEAT (Home Energy Assistance Trust) program, a program designed to provide assistance to citizens struggling to heat their homes.
• SAD 1 students had their artwork on display at the Aroostook Centre Mall.
• Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Ledue toured Aroostook County.
• An agreement between NMCC and the University of Maine at Orono was signed that would provide an opportunity for both NMCC students and for pre-school teachers throughout Aroostook to meet additional state certification requirements.
