This week’s edition!
Events
MLK Day events at Bates
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a debate featuring students from Morehouse and Bates colleges takes place at 1 p.m. in the Benjamin Mays Center, 95 Russell St. (The center is named for a member of the college’s class of 1920 who was a mentor to King and president of Morehouse College.) The debaters will address the resolution, “Environmental sustainability and social equality are incompatible.”
The day closes with “A Journey of Our Own,” a 7:30 p.m. performance by Sankofa, a Bates student group exploring cross-cultural blackness within African diasporic experiences through performative arts like dance, music, theater and spoken work. The performance takes place in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.
Three related events take place during the weekend prior to King Day:
On Friday, February 3 at 7:30 p.m., L/A Arts and Bates College will host “In the Blood,” a documentary film about turn-of-the-century Maine lumbermen and river drivers. “In the Blood” employs film, photography, interviews, sound design and a live musical score to illustrate the life, skills and character of Maine lumbermen and river drivers. The event takes place at Olin Arts Center, Bates College, 75 Russell St., Lewiston. Tickets are $6 at www.batestickets.com. For more information, call 782-7228.
L-A Harley offers free skiing at Lost Valley
This January, everyone is invited to ski or ride for free every Friday from 5 p.m. until close at Lost Valley Ski Resort in Auburn, courtesy of L-A Harley-Davidson.
To kick off the event the L-A Harley Band will be playing a concert in the lodge on Friday, January 6, beginning at 8 p.m.
John Story, owner at L-A Harley-Davidson in Lewiston, believes in giving back to the local community. “Lost Valley is a great family mountain,” he said. “It is local, and we like to support local businesses.”
L-A Harley-Davidson is proud to encourage and support healthy community activities.
LETTER: Paying more for good teachers is less expensive in the long run
To the Editor:
Less than half our students receive the education they require. Unnoticed and un-mourned, they quietly fail at a rate of 50 percent or more, their opportunities flushed away.
This is documented in the annual SAT results and reaffirmed by the 39% of inadequately prepared students entering Central Maine Community College who have to take at least one remedial course. Teachers don’t like to hear this, neither does the school committee; students who are failing while falsely reassured by passing grades don’t understand; and parents don’t have a clue.
The community’s reaction to public education should be clenched-fist outrage; teachers and educators should be embarrassed and apologetic. Instead, during the ongoing wage negotiations between the teacher’s union and the Lewiston School Committee, in examples of both chutzpah and easy-going acquiescence, the teachers will ask for more and, if history is predictive, the school committee will provide more. Students, of course, if we continue to believe in the lessons of history, will continue to fail at or near the same percentage points.
Lisbon Community FCU celebrates Grand Opening of Lewiston Branch
Lisbon Community Federal Credit Union celebrated the grand opening of its new Lewiston branch on Wednesday, Dec. 21, which is a major step forward in the credit union’s expansion into the Lewiston-Auburn area.
Established in 1959, Lisbon Community Federal Credit Union offers a variety of loan and savings programs, including savings and checking accounts, money market, IRA accounts and certificates, free VISA debit cards, home banking, bill payer and eStatements. On the lending side, mortgages, construction loans and home equity lines of credit will be offered in addition to new and used vehicle loans, recreational vehicles and VISA credit cards.
“The board welcomes the Lewiston-Auburn community to our beautiful new Sabattus Street Branch to experience how our members have been ‘building futures’ and ‘preserving dreams’ for over 50 years,” said John Silvestri, president of the Board of Directors, highlighting the Credit Union’s tagline. “We are anxious to have people in the community learn first hand how we take very seriously the Credit Union philosophy of ‘People Helping People’.”
L-A bids farewell to Diane McManus
A crowd of family and friends bid farewell on December 8 to Diane McManus, a well-known local banker who was passionately involved in several L-A civic organizations, at a reception in her honor at Camden National Bank in Lewiston.
Most recently a regional vice president/senior market manager for Camden National Bank, she was responsible for market leadership and overseeing the bank’s small business development and commercial lending activities throughout Androscoggin County. During her career, McManus held several commercial lending and management positions with Northeast Bank, Development Concepts, Inc. and the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council.
Pictured with Diane are Camden National Bank executives (l. to r.) Greg Dufour, Tim Nightingale and Ward Graffam. (Photo by Debra Morin-Ouellette)
She was also very active in the Auburn Business Association and the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce. In 2004, McManus was honored with The Chamber’s Small Business Advocate Award. The morning after the celebration, she and her husband, Steve McManus, headed to Florida to enjoy her retirement. Pictured with Diane are Camden National Bank executives (l. to r.) Greg Dufour, Tim Nightingale and Ward Graffam. (Photo by Debra Morin-Ouellette) See more photos on page 2 of the Digital Edition.
Museum L-A to preserve Bates textile designs
One of the original Bates designs to be preserved by Museum L-A through a grant from Historical Records Collections Grant Program.
Maine State Archivist David Cheever has announced that Museum L-A will receive $2,418 to preserve and provide better access to its historical collections as part of the Historical Records Collections Grant Program.
The program is administered by the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board, with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The grant program is coordinated in Maine by the State Archives.
Through this grant, Museum L-A will inventory and preserve unique art designs created by Bates Manufacturing from 1950 through 1970. The project provides proper and safe archival storage for the Museum’s historically important textile design collection. This collection preserves and celebrates the handiwork of the designs created from hand-sketch to hand-colored-art work, now replaced by computer-aided design technology used in today’s textiles.
Goldworks celebrates Grand Opening of new location
Master Jeweler Tom Cunliffe knows an opportunity when he sees one. Owner and operator of Goldworks for the last 14 years, Cunliffe understands that it’s not just the product that sells, but also the placement. “Pardon the cliché, but it really is location, location, location,” says Cunliffe.
The new home of Goldworks couldn’t be better anchored.
Situated at the former Big Apple Gas & Food Store between KFC and Irving Circle K at 33 Center Street in Auburn, Cunliffe is hoping the high-visibility store will allow his jewelry business to take advantage of the high traffic flow.
Bob Macdonald is Mayor of Lewiston
Robert E. Macdonald emerged victorious Tuesday in a run-off election to determine the next mayor of Lewiston. He squeezed out the victory by 70 votes, winning 2,543 votes to the 2,473 votes cast for Mark W. Paradis.
Paradis may not have been there in person, but he was in spirit as his wife Ronnie, son Phillip and several supporters were at the polls, encouraging residents to vote for him. Paradis, who announced last Wednesday that he was battling cancer, died unexpectedly on Friday.
According to the charter and state statute, the run-off election went ahead as scheduled. Had Paradis received the most votes, the mayor’s seat would have been declared vacant. Then an entirely new election would have been called, and anyone could have run for the position.
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