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| Poland PTA craft fair still a popular, local tradition |
| Over 50 local crafters, nonprofit groups attended fair |
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Michelle Page, with daughter Kristen Madden, from My Country Shed in Oxford, attended the Poland PTA holiday craft fair on Saturday, Nov. 15 for the first time. Page moved her business from Norway to Oxford and was hoping to attract tri-town residents to her store, which is filled with hand painted wood decorations, wreaths and floral arrangements. Jennifer Boenig photo |
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By Jennifer Boenig
Maine crafters filled the gym and lined the hallways of the Poland Community School on Saturday, Nov. 15 for the 26th annual Poland Parent-Teacher Association holiday craft fair.
Mary Wallace, a member of the PTA, said the craft fair is one of their main fundraisers every year. “It’s one of our biggest ones. It’s all Maine crafts. This one has to be all Maine-made things,” said Wallace. The Maine-made tradition is as old as the annual event and Wallace said the crafters like it that way and want it to continue being a Maine event. This year, the PTA covers kindergarten through eighth grade. Michelle Pinkham, ...More-->
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Local towns prepare for a regional school board |
| School board members to be elected in late January |
By Jennifer Boenig
Tri-town voters will be heading back to the polls in January to cast their votes for the new regional school unit board members. On Wednesday, Nov. 12, the regional planning committee’s transition team met to discuss two main issues- electing a new regional school unit board and developing a budget for the 2009 to 2010 school year.
Dennis Duquette, Union 29 superintendent, gave the transition committee members an update on the state rules for appointing an interim secretary. Duquette said he believed the secretary’s primary learned from the Department of Education that the interim secretary was required to be a certified superintendent.
“Why spend more money when we really don’t have to?” said Duquette, who agreed he would be the interim secretary, saving the committee and three towns from paying a retired superintendent to fill the position. Duquette also found out from the state, the position needed to be filled before the state would provide the school district with a school number. The interim secretary is scheduled to be appointed during the Thursday,
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Dec. 4 Union 29 school board meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Minot Consolidated School.
The transition committee also discussed the election process for the RSU school board. The state has created a special set of rules governing the election and only requires a period of 45 to 60 days to complete the process. Duquette told the members once the Department of Education is notified regarding the appointed interim secretary, the towns only have 45 to 60 days to hold the new school board election.
“We want to have the new RSU school committee in place early enough so that they feel comfortable trying to put a budget together. A January vote seems to work well,” said Norm Beauparlant, a transition committee member. The committee agreed to hold elections either Tuesday, Jan. 20 or Tuesday, Jan. 27. A final election date will be determined by Duquette and the three town managers.
The new RSU school board members will work in conjunction with the current school boards on the 2009-2010 school budget process. ...More-->
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| Poland teen safe after getting lost in the woods |
| Girl spent five hours in the woods before being rescued |
A 14-year-old Poland girl is safe and sound after being lost in the woods for about five hours.
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department received a call on Monday, Nov. 17 at 5:43 p.m. stating the Poland teen had wandered off into the woods on Bailey Hill Road and had gotten lost. According to a sheriff’s department press release, the girl had left a note saying she and her boyfriend had broken up that afternoon and she was going out to collect her thoughts.
The teen had a cell phone with her and was text-messaging friends. The sheriff’s department worked with the cell phone company and narrowed down her location within a 9,000 foot radius. LifeFlight of Maine assisted in the search and used their night vision technology
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to help locate the girl.
She eventually called 911 around 8:30 p.m. and helped LifeFlight personnel find her from the air just before 9 p.m. Sheriff’s deputies walked the teen out of the woods and to a Poland Rescue ambulance, where she was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston to receive treatment for hypothermia. The girl had been in the woods for about five hours with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark.
The girl’s phone did not have any minutes available on it to make a call, but all cellular phones can be used to make 911 emergency calls even when out of minutes
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