YESTERDAY …
10 years ago — May 15, 2004
(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)
BANGOR — Formerly a poor farm for the city’s destitute, the Beal College building on Main Street once again will house Bangor’s needy when its doors open July 1 as the new home of Manna Inc., a local food pantry and day care center.
Manna’s purchase of the property became final Friday as workers lugged out the last of the college’s furniture and office equipment to truck down Farm Road to the former Saucony building, where Beal College will reopen on Monday.
“For us at Manna, this is 13 years of hard work,” Bill Rae, Manna’s executive director, said Friday. “It’s amazing that we have come full circle.”
BANGOR — First Paper Holding LLC and the Finance Authority of Maine on Friday agreed to negotiate, at least, their differences on the terms of a $5.5 million lending package — a small victory that restores life to the Connecticut-based company’s $23.7 million deal to purchase the abandoned Eastern Pulp and Paper Co.
Talks between the buyer and the lender broke down Thursday after FAME’s board of directors placed 15 conditions on the financial package that First Paper Holding said made the deal unworkable.
After what both FAME and First Paper Holding called major prodding by Gov. John Baldacci, the buyer and the lender agreed to face each other again Thursday evening.
Negotiations that ran through most of the night were described as tense and contentious with neither side willing “to move an inch” on reaching a settlement.
25 years ago — May 15, 1989
DEDHAM — Maine Street ’90 representatives last week extended congratulations to the town of Dedham for being the first Hancock County community to join the program.
The project that brought Dedham recognition was begun two years ago with the construction of two classrooms next to the Dedham School, said First Selectman Charles Lawson. The project has since grown to include a new town office, day-care center and playground.
A combination town office and day-care center will be set into the new playground using the classroom addition, which will be moved a short distance to make the office space, Lawson said. An addition will be built on the school.
BANGOR — Single men age 21 and older are being sought to participate in the third annual Bid for Bachelors charity auction to benefit the March of Dimes.
The event, which last year netted $9,435 to fight birth defects, is scheduled for Thursday, June 22, at the Bangor Civic Center. A social time will begin at 6 p.m. followed by bidding at 7:30 p.m. Organizers hope to exceed last year’s proceeds.
The men who participate offer date packages on which women bid, with the package going to the highest bidder. The bachelor who offers a package becomes the escort of the woman who bids on it.
50 years ago — May 15, 1964
BANGOR — A change in the stop sign pattern at the intersection of Mount Hope Avenue and the Hogan Road will go into effect Monday, according to Bangor Police Chief Maurice W. Small. Chief Small said that stop signs will be changed to stop traffic on Mount Hope Avenue and make Hogan Road a throughway.
Chief Small said that the change is being made to eliminate a hazard created when the Hogan Road became an access way to Interstate 95. A survey conducted by the State Highway Commission, he said, shows that the volume of traffic on the Hogan Road is greater than that on Mount Hope Avenue.
BANGOR — The donkey’s hooves are digging into the Bangor turf this morning to kick off the two-day Democratic state convention against a backdrop of special color and innovations.
Amid vari-colored balloons, straw hats and a large assortment of banners, placards and signs, the convention officially will open this afternoon at 4 p.m. in the Bangor Municipal Auditorium, where the business sessions will take place. Convention headquarters will be the Bangor House.
100 years ago — May 15, 1914
BANGOR — Sheriff J. Fred O’Connell opened in Milford Thursday night his campaign for the Republican nomination for sheriff of Penobscot County before the June primaries. Although the meeting was one of the regular fortnightly gatherings of the Republican organization in the town, and the fact that the sheriff was to make his opening speech there had not been widely advertised, there were more than 100 in the town hall when the sheriff made his appearance.
Albion Oakes chairman of the board of selectmen, spoke but briefly, introducing the sheriff, who was greeted with applause.
Sheriff O’Connell spoke for half an hour, confining himself to his record since his appointment to the office of sheriff by Gov. Haines a year ago last April. There were many present who looked for considerable comment on the part of the sheriff upon the recent action of the governor in asking for his resignation on the charge that he had not properly fulfilled the duties of his office, but beyond submitting his record in comparison with other sheriffs of the country, and recounting some of the difficulties that he has had to overcome, the sheriff touched but lightly on that phase of the present political situation in the county.
BANGOR — Sheriff O’Connell has sworn in 15 special deputies, who are to guard the bridges of the Bangor & Aroostook railroad, and its roadbed, in Penobscot County.
“My swearing in of these deputies,” the sheriff said last night, “has nothing to do with the enforcement of the prohibitory law, although many may at first have thought so. The men will at once enter the service of the railroad, and will be paid by the railroad.”
Compiled by Brian Swartz