YESTERDAY …
10 years ago — Feb. 5, 2005
(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)
CARMEL — Petty Officer Robert’s Cepero knows boats. As the head engineer at the Coast Guards Southwest Harbor station, he could tell you the location of just about every nut and bolt in the fleet.
That expertise recently earned the Carmel man the Coast Guard’s Enlisted Person of the Year award for 2004.
One of Cepero’s most remarkable contributions laws his discovery that improperly installed equipment on a 41-foot utility boat was interfering with satellite navigation systems, said Lt.j.g. John Hanley, public affairs officer.
The 12-year Coast Guard veteran works behind the scenes, sometimes taking phone calls in the middle of the night to deal with a mechanical problem or engineering dilemma.
BANGOR — Maine’s commissioner of health and human services this week approved a request by Eastern Maine Medical Center to build a heat and electricity generating plant on its State Street campus. The 4.6-megawatt facility is expected to supply essentially all of the hospitals electricity, heating and cooling needs while reducing its dependence on the commercial electricity supplier in the region, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.
25 years ago — Feb. 5, 1990
BREWER — Brewer High School Key Club organized up blood drive and collected 69 pints of blood for the American Red Cross. Teri Fitzpatrick, a senior from Orrington, braved the needle to do her civic duty while Nurse Marilyn Boulier assisted in the donation.
ORONO — It’s a facet that perhaps has been criminally overlooked, but the fact that Werner Torkanowski, the musical director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, has a magical touch in programming. Unlike Ricardo Muti, in command of the fabled Philadelphians. Who has been known to squeeze for Haydn symphonies into one program, Torkanowski has a deft hand at setting up accessible and attractive programs.
50 years ago — Feb. 5, 1965
BANGOR — Anyone who has taken the time and effort to fence off 2,058 acres of land, smack dab in the middle of an area populated by 38,912 people, is bound to have some problems with curiosity seekers.
The U,S. Air Force has done just that at Dow Air Force Base in Bangor and over the years more than a few cranks and passersby have succumbed to an urge to see what’s behind all those barricades.
In the words of the security officer, “some pretty strange things happen here after dark.”
Glimpsing a shadowy figure inching toward him one winter evening a few years ago one airman on lonely patrol found himself face to face with a rather sizable black bear approximately 5 feet away.
Carbine or no carbine, the airman evacuated the area and high-speed.
Intruders at Dow are not limited to the animal kingdom. The base is within easy view from several streets and highways in Bangor, something that apparently just whets the appetite of some people.
A French student here last summer became intrigued with Dow’s B-52G bombers parked nearby as he traveled along the base in a touring bus; so intrigued, in fact, that he left the bus and was apprehended climbing over a fence at the bomber alert section.
BANGOR — What started out as a hobby for four of the men of St. Mary’s Catholic Church has turned into an asset for the entire parish.
Approximately 5 years ago, author Richard, Robert Gilbert, Waldo Gagnon and Joseph Flanagan decided to learn to cook just for the fun of it, and because they thought they would like to cook.
When St. Mary’s Parish holds its annual reunion in John Bapst High School auditorium, it will be these four men who do the cooking. Supper, which will be served to more than 700, is being put on by the men and women of the parish.
Richard, a sheet metal and welding foreman at Dow Air Force Base, learn to cook because he liked it. He picked it up itself and never had a teacher.
Gilbert, who runs a rug and carpet company, did some cooking in the Army. He too learned to cook on his own without any teaching.
Gagnon, with customer service at the Eastern Fine Paper and Pulp Division, Standard Packaging Corporation, is another do-it-yourself cooking hobbyist.
Flanagan did some cooking in the CCC camps during 1935- 1939. Since then he has done some cooking and catering and also hands those shoes.
100 years ago — Feb. 5, 1915
BANGOR — The fifth annual food fair of Bangor Council U.C.T. scored another unqualified success Thursday night. Long before 7 o’clock the corridors of City Hall were crowded with people awaiting the opening of the doors. For hours the throngs poured into the main and banquet halls, until there was not an inch of standing room left.
The number of people in attendance was far in excess of Wednesday night, and nothing but the actual counting of the admissions would make anyone believe that so many were present. It was a happy and good-natured crowd, bent on the best of good times; keeping the demonstrations busy, and enjoying the music by Pullen’s orchestra. The banquet hall was packed for hours, the exhibits of Chandler and Co., the Bangor Gas Co., Miller and Webster Clothing C., Bangor Stoneware Co. being the attractions. In particular the potters wheels operated by a skilled workman of the stoneware people, is a center of attraction and the patrons never seem to get tired of seeing the articles turned out as if by magic from shapeless pieces of clay
DEDHAM — Alphonso Davis of Harmony came to town a few days ago with his span of heavy horses, which his son-in-law, Clifford Burrill, will use hauling logs from his lumbar lot to the mail here.
Harold Buzzell, who accidentally swallowed a souvenir coin two weeks ago, and was in the Easton Maine Gen. Hospital nearly a week, has returned home and is improving.
BUCKSPORT — The pictures which are to be shown Saturday afternoon and evening are of great interest to the residents of the town as Dustin Farnum is seen in the title role of the popular play, “Soldiers of fortune” by Richard Harding Davis. Dustin Farnum is one of the popular Bucksport boys and all will be glad to welcome him back on Saturday.
BUCKSPORT — The crew of men are still very busy at Silver Lake getting in the ice for the year’s supply for the town and the supply is running running 15 inches of clear ice.
Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin