AUGUSTA, ME – The Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) announced today that Maine Revenue Services, a bureau of DAFS, will extend the deadline to file Maine state taxes, for eight counties impacted by severe January storms, matching the recent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) federal tax extension deadline for Maine taxpayers until July 15, 2024. 

 On April 4, 2024, the IRS announced federal tax relief for individuals and businesses in certain Maine counties affected by severe storms and flooding that began on January 9, 2024 and designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington, and York counties, postponing various tax filing and payment deadlines to July 15, 2024.   

This extension is separate from an earlier IRS and Maine State tax filing deadline extension through June 17, 2024, in response to 10 FEMA designated Maine Counties as a result of December 2023 storms.  

Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, and York counties were not included in the first IRS extension for filing through June 17, 2024 related to the December 2023 storms.?This new relief related to the January 2024 storms will extend certain filing and payment due dates for taxpayers in those counties through July 15, 2024.? For affected Maine taxpayers in these five counties, tax returns and final or estimated payments originally due on or after January 9, 2024, and before July 15, 2024 for Individual Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Fiduciary Income Tax (trusts and estates) and Franchise Tax are postponed to July 15, 2024.   

 Hancock, Waldo, and Washington counties did receive relief related to the December 2023 storms and already have an extension for certain filing and payments for Maine liabilities through June 17, 2024.?This extended relief related to the January 2024 storms will extend those deadlines out another month to July 15, 2024.  For affected Maine taxpayers in these three counties, tax returns and final or estimated payments originally due on or after December 17, 2023, and before July 15, 2024 for Individual Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Fiduciary Income Tax (trusts and estates) and Franchise Tax are postponed to July 15, 2024.    

In sum, taxes are due in the following Maine counties as indicated: 

April 17, 2024: Aroostook 

June 17, 2024: Androscoggin, Franklin, Kennebec, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset 

July 15, 2024: Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington, York 

 Any related penalties and interest will be abated through July 15, 2024 (Relief Period). Affected taxpayers are encouraged to file electronically. Affected taxpayers filing paper returns should write “MAINE FLOODING” across the top of their return. Affected taxpayers are still encouraged to make payments and file if they are able and prepared to do so before July 15, 2024. 

 Regardless of filing method, if any affected taxpayer receives a notice of assessment of penalties and/or interest for the Relief Period due to late returns or payments, please contact MRS immediately at income.tax@maine.gov (Income Tax programs) to request abatement.  

Payment and filing deadlines for all other Maine tax types, including Maine sales tax and income tax withholding, remain unchanged.  

Taxpayers with questions about special federal tax relief associated with federally declared disaster areas should contact the IRS at (866) 562-5227 or go to the IRS website at www.irs.gov. 

SCARBOROUGH, ME – Evergreen Credit Union’s upcoming Scarborough branch will open its doors on Saturday, April 20, 2024.

To celebrate the new location, there will be a ribbon cutting, beverages and treats on April 20 from 8:30am-12:30pm. Evergreen members may also step into the Evergreen Cash Cube to win Sea Dogs tickets, an exclusive tour of Winslow Homer’s art studio in Scarborough, movie tickets and more.

The team is looking forward to welcoming new and returning members. “We’re excited to serve more of southern Maine with the branch opening,” said Jason Lindstrom, Evergreen’s President/CEO. “We welcome those in the Scarborough and the surrounding area to check out our newest branch.”

Evergreen Credit Union is Maine’s 5th largest credit union, with over $550 million in assets and serving 6 counties in southern Maine. Their Scarborough branch will be their 6th location. To learn more about Evergreen, visit https://www.egcu.org.

Evergreen CU’s Scarborough branch, scheduled to open Saturday, April 20, 2024.

GORHAM, ME — Baxter Memorial Library is pleased to present a month of fantastic local authors, writing in a variety of genres.  Books are available to check out at the library, and will also be available to purchase at the events.  These and many other events are supported and sponsored by the Friends of Baxter Memorial Library! 

April 18, 6 pm: Cheryl Gillespie and Lisa Beecher: A Conversation on Mental Health

Cheryl and Lisa will present a unique look at mental health care, including treatment, stigma, and the toll on patients’ families, etc., from both an historical perspective to present day. Cheryl is the daughter of a young woman who experienced involuntary hospitalization after three suicide attempts and displaying paranoid behavior in the fall of 1948 in Augusta, Maine. She was diagnosed with what was then called dementia praecox, now called psychosis. Lisa is the wife of a retired police officer who has experienced psychotic breaks more recently in Portland, Maine. They hope to talk candidly with their audience about what is and isn’t available for the mentally ill. They also will touch on things such as societal stigma, differences in attitudes between men and women, need for more training of people who deal with those coping with mental illnesses, and anything else that comes up in the discussion.

April 25, 6pm: Ed Judd

Edward Judd, a resident of Auburn who taught music in Lisbon for 22 years, will give a talk on his book, View from the Podium. Judd was also a marching band staff member at Edward Little High School for 10 years, and taught music at the Hillview Center in Lewiston.

The book is a memoir tracing Judd’s 46 years as a music educator. Although Judd has been a high school music teacher for most of his career, the book also includes many of his experiences as a music teacher from elementary school through his time as Band Director at Holy Cross College. In addition, Judd, a former president of the Maine Music Educators Association, also relates his experiences in professional organizations as a leader on the state and regional levels. The book has been described as “heartfelt”, “illuminating”, and “an uplifting story told in a straightforward way”.

Copies of Judd’s book will be available, and he will autograph copies at the conclusion of the event.

May 1, 6 pm: Matt Cost (rescheduled from April 3)

Matt Cost, a.k.a. Matthew Langdon Cost, was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

His Clay Wolfe/Port Essex series follows the highly lauded Mainely Mystery series by Cost. Acclaimed author Gerry Boyle selected the first in that series, Mainely Power, to be the Maine Humanities Council Read ME fiction book of the year.

Cost’s historical fiction titles include Love in a Time of Hate, about a young man from Maine fights for social equality in New Orleans after the Civil War while pursuing a serial killer, becoming enmeshed in voodoo, and falling in love; At Every Hazard, which traces Joshua Chamberlain’s evolution from an arrogant, overbearing professor to unwitting and unlikely hero and leader of men. Interwoven are subplots including the coming of age of his young orphaned aide, a complicated marriage, and of course, lots of rousing battle scenes; and I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, a historically accurate novel detailing society, politics, war, and love in Cuba in the 1950s.

GORHAM, ME — The Casco Bay Wind Symphony invites you to their upcoming concert! A “Lord of the Rings” themed performance conducted by Dr. William Kinne has been scheduled for Sunday,  April 28 at 2:00 PM at the McCormack Performing Arts Center at Gorham High School.

This concert features Johan de Meij’s “Symphony No. 1 – ‘The Lord of the Rings’ ,” Omar Thomas’s “Caribana Afterparty,” Joel Puckett’s “A Lullaby for John,” Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” Percy Grainger’s “Molly on the Shore,” and Yukiko Nishimura’s “Summer Triangle” featuring our own Jason LaWind on alto saxophone.

Join our “Lord of the Rings” costume contest – a prize for the best “Lord of the Rings” garb!!!

Tickets:

Adults – $13 in Advance, $15 at the door; Seniors (65 +) – Pay what you can; Students / Kids – Free. Tickets can be purchased at the door, or on our website – cascobaywindsymphony.org

Hope to see you there!

GORHAM, ME — The Town of Gorham’s spring brush dates will be Saturday, 4/20 and Saturday, 5/4 8AM to 3PM at 80 Huston Road.

This event is for residents only, please no commercial drop off. No stumps will be accepted.

Leaves and grass clippings accepted in the designated area throughout the season. Please do not leave bags behind.

Maine Turnpike Authority’s plan puts Gorham at risk

I live in Gorham with my husband and our ten month old daughter. I love our town and our community; it has been such a special place to raise our daughter and I can’t wait to continue to watch her grow up here. I feel so lucky to live in Gorham and I’m writing to encourage more of my neighbors to speak up to help protect our beloved community from the Maine Turnpike Authority.

My daughter is the luckiest – she gets to grow up in a community with woods, streams, fields, farms, friends as neighbors, safe streets where she’ll learn how to ride her bike, and sidewalks where she’ll walk to school. I love walking on the trail by our home with her and trying to imagine how she sees it through her eyes: busy with green stuff in summer and crisp with white fluffy stuff in winter.

And I am the luckiest too – I get to ski and hike and ride bikes on trails all over town, buy vegetables and ice cream from local farms and shops in our downtown, and visit beautiful places all over Gorham with my baby – who turns every ordinary walk along a stream or a brook into a delightful, silly adventure. But the turnpike expansion puts that all at risk.

I am terrified of what Gorham will become if the Maine Turnpike Authority wins its fight against our community. The Gorham Divider would be an epic mistake that will change the character of Gorham forever – there will be no coming back from it.

Highways bring more speeding cars. More cars mean more parking lots. gas stations. strip malls. drab office buildings. drive-thrus. asphalt. smog. noise. When you build a highway through a place, it changes that place forever. You can’t ever get back what you lose: whether that’s someone’s home that they built with their bare hands, the 300-year-old family farm that we are fortunate enough to be at today, trout in the brook, quiet fields, or a quiet neighborhood.

Building a highway through Gorham means one thing: we lose Gorham as we know it. It is just not possible to build a turnpike through a rural and residential part of town and have the things we love about it remain. If we build a highway here just like the one at the Maine Mall, our community will look just like…the highway at the Maine Mall. But we already have a mall, and it’s over there, so let’s protect places over here that are special, meaningful, important, and beautiful.

Places matter, and Gorham is our place. What I think is that Gorham is full of families just like mine who also love what we love about this place, and there are many more who want to be here. I am excited about the ways our community is growing, but worried that the wrong kind of growth means more congestion. We have very real transportation challenges, and we need very real solutions. But the Maine Turnpike Authority’s plan is the wrong way to grow; it is a quarter billion dollar mistake that won’t solve our traffic problem, but will forever change this place – our place – for the worse.

Abby King

Gorham resident

GORHAM, ME — The NH Fiddle Ensemble, a local nonprofit,  announce concerts for their 2024 season:

Friday, May 3, 2024, 6:30 pm Rochester Opera House, 31 Wakefield St, Rochester, NH

Saturday, May 4, 2024, 6:30 pm Star Theatre, 120 Rogers Road, Kittery, ME

Saturday, May 11, 2024, 6:30 pm Interlakes High School Auditorium, 1 Laker Lane, Meredith, NH 

Saturday, May 18, 2024, 6:30 pm Exeter Town Hall, 9 Front Street, Exeter, NH

Sunday, May 19, 2024, 2:00pm Derryfield School, 2108 River Rd, Manchester, NH

Sunday, June 2, 2024,  2:00pm Westbrook Performing Arts Center, 471 Stroudwater St, Westbrook, ME

 The 15th year for the ensemble brings together another dedicated group of over 140 people ages 9 – 89.  This community orchestra of fiddles, guitars, banjos, mandolins, basses, harps, cellos and even some horns are backed by professionals delivering a heartwarming and energetic performance.  As one concert goer said as they left a show, “I come back every year because this whole show and purpose behind it makes me smile and feel all the good there is in the world.  Kids playing with their grandparents, people from all different backgrounds coming together. AND it’s good music!”  This show is more than fiddle tunes.  We’ve been busy for the past several months working up a stylistically diverse set of music for this year’s concerts. Get ready to hear an 84-year-old fiddler ripping up a solo with a group of teenagers, a French tune spotlighting our cello players, a rock song featuring solos from our bass players, a young trumpeter sweetening up a swing song, a mom backing up her daughter singing, a grandfather playing clarinet with his granddaughters on fiddles, a husband new to banjo playing with his wife who has played violin for many years, and SO much more! You never know what’s in store with this great community of musicians.

 The NH Fiddle Ensemble is a nonprofit whose mission is to bring community together through music.  Rehearsals start in November and go through April.  Music is taught by ear so you won’t see any music stands on stage, just performers smiling and looking at the audience and each other.   After rehearsing in seven smaller groups throughout New Hampshire and Maine, the groups then come together for 2 large rehearsals and 6 concerts.  Some concerts are in partnership with other nonprofits to help raise awareness of community organizations. 

For tickets, go to:  https://www.nhfiddleensemble.org/concerts/

TOPSHAM, ME — Great Falls Model Railroad Club will be hosting its Annual Topsham Train Show at Mount Ararat High School on April 27th, 2024 from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Admission to the event is $5 per person and children under 12 are free. 

Scale Trains, a nationally known manufacturer of model trains, will be at show. They will have meet and greets at 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm for everyone to participate in. Over 100 vendor tables will be open with model railroad equipment in HO, O, N, and G scale equipment, scenery materials, and more for sale. A few modular layouts will also be set up for everyone’s enjoyment. 

The venue is fully handicap accessible and refreshments are served onsite directly benefiting the school’s booster club. 

GORHAM, ME — The Town of Gorham’s spring brush dates will be Saturday, 4/20 and Saturday, 5/4 8AM to 3PM at 80 Huston Road.

This event is for residents only, please no commercial drop off. No stumps will be accepted.

Leaves and grass clippings accepted in the designated area throughout the season. Please do not leave bags behind.

GORHAM, ME — The Fairytale Craft & Vendor Fair for Families is an enchanting event that combines the allure of princesses, princes, magical crafts, and delightful shopping experiences. This fair is specially designed to cater to families seeking a day filled with enchantment, creativity, and a touch of royal charm.

As families step into the fair, they are welcomed by a captivating ambiance adorned with regal decorations, sparkling tiaras, and whimsical princess-themed displays that transport them to a world of fairy tale magic. The fair boasts a diverse array of vendors offering a treasure trove of handcrafted items, unique products, and princess-inspired goods for sale.

Parents and children can peruse through the vendor booths showcasing exquisite princess dresses, tiaras, fairy wings, enchanted jewelry, and other fantastical accessories fit for royalty. From magical potions to fairy godmother wands, there is a wide selection of items waiting to be discovered and taken home as special keepsakes.

In addition to shopping, families can engage in interactive craft activities tailored to the princess theme. Children can design their own special craft, have pictures taken with their favorite Prince or Princess. Skilled artisans are on hand to guide participants through the projects and ensure a fun and memorable experience for all.

Throughout the fair, families can enjoy enchanting entertainment such as princess meet-and-greets, live performances featuring beloved fairy tale characters. Food vendors offer a delectable array of treats and beverages to keep everyone happily fueled and refreshed throughout the day.

The Fairytale Princess Craft & Vendor Fair for Families promises a magical day where dreams come true, creativity flourishes, and lasting memories are made. It’s an enchanting opportunity for families to bond, explore, and immerse themselves in the enchanting world of fairy tales and princesses together.