YESTERDAY …
10 years ago — May 8, 2004
(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)
BANGOR — As the temperatures rise and winter gives way to spring, motorists coming over the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge from Brewer have been seeing something on the waterfront they would not have seen a few years ago.
People. People sitting on benches and at picnic tables, having lunch or admiring the view. People walking and jogging for exercise.
And people, by the tens of thousands, coming to the waterfront to take in the sights and sounds of the National Folk Festival.
Today the city’s long-neglected waterfront is in the midst of a rebirth that city officials hope will bring more people to the area year-round and make a better connection to Bangor’s downtown.
BUCKSPORT — Town councilors got their first official look at the proposed $11 million school budget this week.
Councilors reviewed the budget Thursday, peppering the school committee and administrators with questions about specific budget areas.
The proposed budget of $11,207,575 represents an increase of $743,570 or 7.11 percent, according to Superintendent Marc Curtis. Curtis explained than more than half of that increase will not have an impact on the amount taxpayers will have to raise for the budget.
25 years ago — May 8, 1989
BANGOR — Driving a nearly 60-foot tractor-trailer rig through city traffic causes no eyebrows to raise during Monday-through-Friday workdays, but the skill required to nudge a huge five-axle fuel delivery truck into places that some wouldn’t drive a small car is a rare commodity.
Webber Oil Company drivers got their chances to prove their prowess with tankers Sunday afternoon in a paved parking area near Bangor International Airport. Among the 13 drivers were two former Maine state winners, Randy Stone, of Bangor, and Donald Story, of Portland. Webber Oil has 24 tractor-trailer drivers in Bangor and 15 in Portland, a company official said.
Truckers started the course, driving through a narrow alley formed by portable wood stanchions. The alley was only about two feet wider than the truck, which presented no problems until a second similar alleyway only less than 60 feet further down the course presented its challenge. It was set off to one side, making driving through both with a 44-foot trailer a real challenge.
AUGUSTA — The survival of a rare fish species and the availability of sufficient water for the Bangor area are on a collision course in the Maine Legislature.
A bill aimed at protecting the Sunapee char, commonly called the silver trout, found only in Floods Pond in Hancock County, could force the Bangor Water District to ration water to the seven communities or even shut down its pumps.
“We could never shut our pumps down, although that is what the bill is saying,” said Peter Caldwell, superintendent for the district, which serves 56,000 people in Bangor, Hampden, Orono, Veazie, Hermon, Eddington and Clifton.
50 years ago — May 8, 1964
ORONO — The Colby Mules moved into first place in the State Series baseball race Wednesday as they took a 7-4 victory from the Maine Bears before 1,100 Maine Day fans at the U-M campus.
Ken Stone, Colby’s lanky, side-arming righthander, weathered trouble in the first two innings and went on to shut out Maine over the final seven frames.
The win makes Colby 2-0 in the State Series while Maine dropped to 1-2. Bowdoin is 100 and Bates 0-2.
Maine scored four runs and Colby five in the first three innings of the contest which were dotted with errors for both sides. The miscues, many of them costly, totaled six for Maine and four Colby in the game.
HAMPDEN — A gnawing problem has returned to haunt the town of Hampden.
Town Manager Robert J. Day reported Thursday that a family or small colony of beavers again has dammed the Souadabscook Stream here, threatening to flood a newly reconstructed section of the Patterson Road.
Speculation mounts that they may be descendants of the hardy band of wood chompers which braved dynamite blasting, traps and many other human devices to dislodge them from a dam they had built across a culvert on the Canaan Road in the summer of 1959.
Their historic stand then won the paddle-tailed creatures nationwide publicity and was featured in articles appearing in The Reader’s Digest, Look and Atlantic Monthly magazines.
Day says the new dam first was noticed last Monday. The present solution, a fence at the end of the culvert to keep the beavers from getting inside it, seemed to be working pretty well as of Thursday.
100 years ago — May 8, 1914
BANGOR — The eighteenth annual session of the Maine State Spiritualist Association will be held in Memorial Parlors, Bangor, May 16 and 17. Indications point to well-filled delegations from the local societies and campmeeting associations. The Maine Central and Bangor & Aroostook railroads have granted the usual reduced rates. The delegates will be entertained, as to lodgings and breakfasts, in the homes of the Bangor Spiritualists, the plan being to make up little parties of friends among the delegates and patronize the several excellent restaurants for lunches and dinners.
The principal lecturer at the public service will be Helen P. Russague, one of the ablest speakers of the Spiritualist rostrum.
ORONO — Many Bangor people will attend the minstrel show to be given by the students of the University of Maine in Alumni Hall, Orono, Saturday night. A dance will follow, and the proceeds will be devoted to the athletic association.
Compiled by Brian Swartz