Editor’s Note: We took a look back to spotlight some of 2023’s important news stories. Reporter Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli compiled this article.
January
Houlton attorney Richard Rhoda told the town council that he intends to bring a $40,000 near-scale version of the famed French labyrinth at Chartres to downtown Houlton’s Riverfront Park as a gift to the community. Once constructed, America’s Peace Labyrinth, as Rhoda has named it, will be located along the park’s walking path.
The Houlton Police Department ordered $15,815 worth of pistols and holsters for 14 officers to replace their 15-year-old weapons. The department says it keeps its arms in working order but the modern weapons will be an improvement and help officers better see their targets.
Houlton Police Detective Jasmine Cyr was promoted to captain, the first woman in the department to hold the second-in-command position. Cyr, 33, has been the lead investigator on all major crimes in Houlton since making detective two and a half years ago.
February
Hodgdon and Houlton school officials responded quickly to a state report showing high levels of contaminants in the schools’ drinking water. Both school systems contacted parents to report the findings and started making necessary changes to keep students safe. SAD 70 in Hodgdon opted for bottled water for the rest of the school year, and RSU 29 in Houlton has already replaced a number of faucets and water fixtures containing high levels of lead.
Houlton town assessor Terri Duff, announced that she would complete a town market adjustment project because decades-old property values and skyrocketing home sale prices pushed Houlton’s property ratios — assessed value compared with sales in the market — below the minimum for full state exemptions last year.
March
A suspected auto scam was linked to a Houlton business on Alice Avenue that did not exist. Car buyers in Oklahoma, California, Florida and South Carolina believed they were purchasing a car from a Houlton transport company, VNKC, LLC. The scam was discovered after the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce began getting calls from buyers around the country who were duped out of thousands of dollars.
The Houlton Parks and Recreation Advisory Board rejected a local lawyer’s gift of a proposed meditative walking path for downtown’s Riverfront Park. The labyrinth is not a good fit for the park, the board said.
The Maine State Historic Preservation Commission and four tribal communities got a federal windfall of $1.3 million to assure that sacred spaces are honored and tribal artifacts are brought home. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians will use the funds to create a new tribal museum.
April
Caribou native Lee Ann (Guerette) Daigle pleaded guilty to criminal negligence manslaughter in the 1985 death of her newborn infant, Baby Jane Doe, in Houlton Superior Court. Maine State Police arrested Daigle at her Massachusetts home after a grand jury indicted her on one count of intentional, knowing or depraved murder.
In an overwhelming display of approval, Patten residents voted 82 to 5 in favor of conveying the 1845 Regular Baptist Church from the town to the Patten Historical Society. The effort that started with Patten resident Marcia Pond trying to save the historic church from demolition garnered local, state and national attention.
The Maine legislature’s judiciary committee unanimously voted down a bill to permit the use of dogs to comfort witnesses in courtrooms during criminal proceedings. The bill was inspired by Holiday, a yellow Labrador who lives and trains with Aroostook County District Attorney Todd Collins.
A statewide search for an RSU 29 superintendent led the Houlton school district’s board back to their own Joe Fagnant, who has served RSU 29 for 27 years in many roles. Fagnant replaced transitional superintendent Rick Lyons, who served for two years.
May
Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, proposed legislation to establish an adult criminal treatment court in Aroostook County. LD 1596 would appropriate ongoing funds — $119,886 in 2023 and $126,195 in 2024 — for an assistant district attorney position for the court.
RSU 29 administrators decided to cut 14 percent of teacher positions in the Houlton school district to meet budget demands. Of the district’s 77 teachers, the cuts included teachers in science, English and language arts, math, alternative education, elementary education, librarians and support staff. Reduced state subsidies and rising property valuations forced administrators to make the teacher and staff cuts, according to former superintendent Richard Lyons
A Rhode Island man crossed the international border between the United States and Canada in Houlton while threatening that he had a bomb in his vehicle. Tony Holford of Providence, surrendered at the border. He was charged with four felony counts related to an alleged bomb and terrorizing with a dangerous weapon as well as two misdemeanor counts for eluding police. ‘
A Houlton man was arrested on 24 burglary and vandalism counts after the Houlton Police Department received multiple vandalism and burglary calls over a two-day period. Dylan James Raymond, 18, was arrested at the Cary Library after police spotted him fleeing an alleged burglary in progress at Cole’s Shoes on Kendall Street.
June
Lee Ann Daigle was sentenced to 16 years, with all but six suspended, in the 1985 death of her abandoned newborn infant Baby Jane Doe.The case went unsolved for decades until DNA linked the 59-year-old Massachusett woman to Baby Jane Doe. According to Houlton Superior Court Justice Dtephen Nelson, Daigle dumped the baby in a snowbank in Frenchville in below freezing temperatures and did not come forward for 37 years,
A Monticello man, Jayme Schnackenberg, 39, was arrested at his School Street home in Monticello for allegedly killing his girlfriend Kimberly Hardy who lived with him. Schnackenberg was charged with intentionally and knowingly causing the death of Hardy. The charge comes with a potential life sentence if convicted.
Human smuggling was on the rise in Aroostook County. Houlton Sector border patrol agents disrupted multiple cross-border human smuggling operations, resulting in numerous arrests and vehicle seizures. There were 19 arrests in 14 days in Houlton, Mars Hill, Van Buren and Fort Fairfield, according to court records and police accounts.
July
A nationally known neo-Nazi is training his followers in militarized weapons and physical fitness at a site in Springfield. Former U.S. Marine Christopher Pohlhaus, founder of the extremist neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, was recruiting white men to come to Maine for weapons training and preparing the land for future use. A Bangor Daily News reporter observed his 10.6-acre Moores Road property that sits off a narrow dirt and stone road.
An Aroostook County Superior Court judge found probable cause that Jayme Schnackenburg, Monticello, did intentionally and knowingly commit the murder of his girlfriend Kimberly Hardy, following evidence provided by the state. Schnackenburg was arrested after Hardy’s body was discovered in a wooded area near Harvey Siding Road in Monticello, according to Maine State Police. The Maine Medical Examiner’s autopsy report said that Hardy had two gunshot injuries to the back of her head..
August
After nearly six years of undrinkable chemically contaminated water, funding for repairs of the water and sewage systems will bring the Houlton Mobile Home Park in compliance with state and local regulations and make the water safe for people to drink. Park management has been working with local and state officials to pay for the extensive project that includes a new sewer system that will be installed after the water is fixed.
A Lee Airbnb host was banned from the short-term rental site over her connections to a well known neo-Nazi Christopher Pohlhaus. The Loon’s Nest Lodge at Silver Lake, owned by Kathie Greear, can no longer rent her rooms through Airbnb because Pohlhaus stayed and worked at the lodge when guests were present, in violation of Airbnb policies.
Town Manager Marian Anderson retired from her position for family reasons in August. Anderson was town manager for five years.
September
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court justices heard oral arguments regarding Bobby Nightingale who is appealing his conviction and life sentence in the 2019 murder of two Castle Hill men. On appeal, Nightingale, 42, argued several points related to his trial, including the prosecutor’s message to jurors and the harshness of his sentence compared to others convicted of murder.
October
A Florida man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Friday to five years in prison for drug possession and trafficking in Bangor and Houlton, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maine. Rogelio Rios, 34, pleaded guilty to ringing.methamphetamine from Florida for distribution in the Bangor and Houlton area through a group of local conspirators between May and July 2018.
Organized human smuggling is increasing along Maine’s border with Canada. In a six-week period from October to mid-November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Houlton sector had 53 encounters that resulted in 27 people who will be federally prosecuted, a 178 percent increase over last year for the same time period, according to customs and border protection data.
The neo-Nazi who wanted to turn Maine into a white ethnostate sold his 10.6 acres in Springfield.Christopher Pohlhaus, founder of Blood Tribe,reported that after a Bangor Daily News article revealed the exact location of his Moores Road property it was too dangerous to fulfill its purpose. He and his partner sold the property to a Massachusetts man for $39,000 on Oct. 20, according to Maine Multiple Listing Service.
The Houlton Town Council approved a $15 million road project reconstruction agreement with the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, granting the tribe a temporary construction easement for a section of Foxcroft Road. Currently, this section of Foxcroft Road is 28 feet wide, including the gravel shoulders. The federally funded $15 million construction project would widen the road to 32 feet, including three- to five-foot paved shoulders.
November
Houlton Police Chief Tim DeLuca was unanimously appointed interim town manager by the Houlton Town Council. He will stay in the role until a permanent town manager is hired.
The identities of the 12 bachelors in the Houlton Humane Society’s 2024 Dudes and Adoptables Calendar are no longer a mystery. The calendar, created by Johanna Johnston as a fundraiser for the Callahan Road animal shelter, was released on Sunday and is available for sale on Amazon for $20.
Twenty Romanians in four cars crossed the U.S.-Canada border at Hodgdon illegally.
At about 6:10 a.m. Nov. 21, four cars were spotted crossing the international border and agents from the Houlton sector stopped them on Lincoln Road, Customs and Border Protection said. Two of the 20 Romanians were in the Transnational Criminal Organized Crime database and have been processed for expedited removal proceedings, Border Patrol said.
Houlton Town Councilors approved a special amusement ordinance that controls music, dancing and entertainment in businesses licensed to sell liquor in Maine. Facilities licensed to sell liquor are prohibited from dancing, entertainment of any kind, or playing music, other than from a radio or other mechanical device, without a permit, according to the new Houlton ordinance.
A former Houlton man was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a sweeping 21-person northern Maine drug conspiracy. Christopher Coty, 43, is currently serving a 10-year state sentence with all but four years suspended on a related drug charge. According to the federal judgment, his total federal term is 7.25 years. But his federal sentence was reduced by 3.25 years because of his time served in state custody.
Nearly three-fourths of Maine voters supported tribal rights on Nov. 7 and the passage of Question 6. Houlton voted 670 to 310 in favor of its passage. For the first time in nearly 150 years, the state’s Constitution, including the state’s treaty obligations to the Wabanaki people, can be printed in full. The Wabanaki people include the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy nations as well as the Maliseet and Mi’kmaq tribes.
December
An 83-year-old Hodgdon man crossed the Millinocket Half Marathon finish line in three hours and 26 minutes on Saturday.In a field of over 2,300 runners, Clinton Cushman, the oldest registered runner in the 13.1 mile race, beat his 2021 time by three minutes. And after his wife Lorinda Cushman posted a picture of him at the finish line there were 1,300 likes.
The town of Houlton’s proposed $14.8 million 2024 budget increased $2.5 million over last year and includes significant increases for both the police department and the airport. Starting in December, the Houlton Board of Budget Review will hear from the town’s department heads regarding line items and justification for expenditures as the detailed review begins prior to a public hearing in January.
