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November 2012
contents
features An Agent of Change / 16 Wade C. Johnson was hired to shake things up at Pen Bay Healthcare. Positive changes are in store. Creating Access to Health Care / 18 The Katahdin Valley Health Center is working hard to reach as many patients as possible in rural Maine. Healing hands / 24 One thing is for certain—a day in the life of a Maine nurse is never boring. Don’t believe us? Just ask Connie Barrett, Zita Buck, and Daphyne Deane—the three nurses we followed around for a day. Internet for all / 34 People who live in rural Maine don’t take broadband access for granted. Fortunately it’s getting easier for them to get online. A Piece of Maine: skowhegan / 42 This town in the Kennebec River Valley is rich in history and poised for growth. 2012 energy guide / 50 We asked leaders who represent oil, wood pellets, and natural gas to give us the lowdown on their energy industries.
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A Slice of the smileys / 62 Bangor’s most famous military mom Sarah Smiley opens the doors to us for a special Bangor Metro edition of Dinner with the Smileys. Side street cafe / 66 Chris Hearn might have been born and raised in Alabama, but he’s all Mainer now. Photos: (top) Andrea Hand; (Right) melanie brooks; (far right) Mark Mccall
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columns
in every issue
Metro fitness / 22 Are you among the elite?
TaLk of the Towns / 8 We keep it close to home this month with three stories in the Bangor area.
last word / 80 One man’s fight...with a llama.
Biz Buzz & sightings / 10 People and places on the move. What’s Happening: Home for the HOlidays edition / pullout A list of events to take you through the holiday season. Metro sports / 60 Youth skiing activities and water polo at College of the Atlantic. Perspectives / 70 Keren Zucker shows us the artistic side of abandoned houses. savvy seniors / 73 Help fight hunger for area seniors.
4 / Bangor Metro November 2012
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Photos: (top) julia walker thomas; (left) keren zucker
woods & waters / 72 Back to the roots of deer hunting.
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The Bangor Metro Region Melanie Brooks, editor
6 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Photo: Kate Crabtree
n a recent flight between Washington, D.C. and Bangor, I shared a plane with Senator Susan Collins. I didn’t notice her until we were getting off the plane in Bangor. The plane was small enough that there were no first class accommodations—but even if there had been, I’m sure Sen. Collins would have flown coach. She seems like a down-toearth kind of woman who would see flying first class as an unnecessary luxury. Maybe it’s her Aroostook County roots that make me think that way—or maybe it’s her approachability. I was only too happy to introduce myself and shake her hand as we disembarked. If I had had my camera, I would have asked her to hold my newborn baby and taken a photo. Scratch that—I would have given the camera to someone else and had them take a photo of the three of us— me, Susan, and Baby Ian. I am not a very political person, but ever since I spent the afternoon eating chowder in Sen. Collins’s kitchen for a feature way back in April 2009, I’ve had a soft spot for the Caribou native. November 2012 is a big month for Americans. It’s election time, and we have some big decisions to make. I do not feel that it’s right for any magazine or newspaper to endorse one candidate in particular, so Bangor Metro will not be taking a stance on any candidate. I’m not even going to tell you who I am voting for. But I am voting. I will, however, urge you to do your research on the candidates before stepping into that voting booth. Health care is a huge topic for Americans—and Mainers in particular! We are one of the oldest states in the nation, with high levels of obesity and cancer. In fact, health care is so important to us that our November issue is dedicated to the topic. We have a few stories dedicated to health and wellness this month. Be sure to check out our feature, which follows three area nurses for a day to find out what its really like to work in the health care field in Maine. Our Mover & Shaker this month is the head of Pen Bay Healthcare and our Metro Health story features the Katahdin Valley Health Center. Make sure you pull out our “Home for the Holidays” section and keep it handy for the next two months. This expanded calendar of events section includes tons of holiday happenings in our region—from craft fairs to New Year’s Eve parties in Bangor and the surrounding communities. If you do nothing else this November, make sure you get out and vote. Make your voice heard on both the local and national level. Voting is a right that not all people have, and we shouldn’t take it for granted. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, everyone—and enjoy the festive events of the season.
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Sue Blake sue@bangormetro.com 10 issues $24.95 Bangor Metro is published by Metro Publishing, LLC. Inquiries and suggestions are welcome and encouraged. Letters to the editor, story suggestions, and other reader input will be subject to Bangor Metro’s unrestricted right to edit and publish in the magazine or on the web. Please address written correspondence to 263 State Street, Suite 1, Bangor, ME 04401. For advertising questions, please call Christine Parker, Sales Director, at 207-4045158. Bangor Metro is mailed at standard rates in Bangor, Maine. Newsstand Cover Date: November 2012. Vol. 8, No. 8, copyright 2012, issue No. 74. Advertisers and event sponsors or their agents are responsible for copyrights and accuracy of all material they submit. ADDRESS CHANGES: To ensure delivery, subscribers must notify the magazine of address changes one month in advance of cover date. Opinions expressed do not represent editorial positions of Bangor Metro. Nothing in this issue may be copied or reprinted without written permission from the publisher. Bangor Metro is published 10 times annually. To subscribe, call 941-1300 ext. 121 or visit www.bangormetro.com.
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talk of the towns
bangor: When Hollywood Slots added table games to their repetoire and changed their name to Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway, they had to hire more than 65 dealers to run the games. And thanks to a new program at Eastern Maine Community College, many of those dealers received their training at the Bangor school. “We often reach out to business partners in the area to help service their needs—it’s part of our role in the community,” says Mike Ballesteros, dean of corporate and professional services at EMCC. “When we heard that the legislature was going to approve table games in the state, we became interested in what we could do for training.” The school purchases gaming curriculum from the Blue Ridge Technical and Community College in West Virginia and worked with Hollywood Casino to develop a program that would suit their needs. “We don’t offer training if there are no opportunities,” Ballesteros says. “We look at what the needs of the casino are, and run classes that pertain to that need.” The school currently offers two classes—an intro 8 / Bangor Metro November 2012
class, which every student must take—and a Blackjack class. In all, the training spans 120 hours over six weeks. EMCC has curriculum to offer other courses, including poker, roulette, craps, and secondary games like three-card and four-card poker. You don’t have to be an enrolled EMCC student to take this training—it’s open to the public. “Maine is a small state, and opportunities for new jobs often take time,” Ballesteros says. “This new opportunity has people going to school for a short amount of time for a job where the starting pay averages about $25 an hour with benefits. That’s a great thing!” John Osborne, general manager of Hollywood Casino agrees. “Eastern Maine Community College has been a wonderful partner in this program,” he says. “Today we have 16 table games and we have hired more than five dozen dealers from that program. It’s allowing people in Eastern Maine to develop skills and training for a new industry to this state, and they can use that experience not only here in Maine, but at casinos across the country.”
photo: ©istockphoto/thinkstock.com
Tricks of the Trade
Hockey Town orono: Black Bear hockey fans know how great it is to catch a game on the ice in Alfond Arena. From the Naked 5 running around after each goal to Bananas the bear shooting T-shirts into the crowd during intermission, going to a UMaine hockey game is something special. And that special atmosphere has caught the attention of Darren Everson, a writer for the Wall Street Journal. According to Everson, Alfond Arena has the best atmosphere of any hockey rink in America. “Games at Maine’s Alfond Arena feel like the hockey version of Friday Night Lights,” Everson writes in his February 2011 article. “The Wall Street Journal article recognized nationally what we have known in Maine for a long time,” says University of Maine athletic director, Steve Abbott. “The best college hockey atmosphere in America is at the University of Maine in Alfond Arena.” The arena seats 5,445 screaming fans decked out in blue and white—both students and loyal locals who fill the
building for every home game. Referees get an earful from rowdy fans, and the UMaine band fills the arena with a partylike atmosphere. Whether you’re sitting in one of the plush skyboxes or in the last
row of the bleachers, the school spirit reverberating off of the walls is infectious. The Hockey East and National Championship banners make for some nice décor, too.
photos: (top) peter buehner, (bottom) ©istockphoto/thinkstock.com
Gentle Movie Magic Bangor: Going to the movies can be a real treat for kids. The lights go down, the air smells of buttery popcorn, and their favorite characters come to life on the big screen. But not all kids find this sort of thing thrilling. In fact, some find it terrifying. Parents of children with disabilities, especially autism, know
all too well how hard it is for their children to deal with the rules associated with watching a movie in public. The bright lights from the screen and the booming audio are often too much for them to handle. Luckily they have an alternative, thanks to Bangor resident, Shane Leonard. Leonard worked with the manager of the Bangor Cinemas, Sue Bragdon, to offer the first “gentle movie viewing” in Bangor. Over 70 people enjoyed watching the Disney flim Brave this past July. The lights in the theater were left on, the sound was lowered, and talking and moving about was no longer prohibited. “We are committed to showing popular films in this format whenever we can,” Bragdon says. “All of us at Your Neighborhood Theatres agree that this is a great program and look forward to expanding it. In fact, one of our fellow theatres in Derry, New Hampshire, is starting a Gentle View program with the movie, Finding Nemo.” While families who have children with autism are the target audience for these shows, they are open to everyone. This is especially nice for families with small children who might have a hard time sitting still for an entire hour to watch a movie in Opal complete silence. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 9
biz buzz On the Move Andrew putnam has
been promoted from network technician for Katahdin Trust Company to the assistant vice president and technology product manager. Putnam, a native of Houlton, has been with Katahdin Trust since 1999. www.katahdintrust.com The Jackson Lab has hired clare tully, an attorney with wide-ranging expertise in business and nonprofit sectors, as its new senior director for human resources, health, and safety. Previously Tully was employed at the law firm of Bernstein Shur, based in Portland. www.jax.org The Newport office of Irwin, Tardy & Morris is pleased to welcome ROBERT W. WEAVER, Esq. to their team. A native of Belfast, Weaver joins the firm after spending a year as a law clerk to the Honorable Leigh I. Saufley, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. His practice will emphasize general litigation, appellate work, and governmental affairs. www.itmlaw.com DAN BOOKHAM of Rockland
has joined Allen Insurance and Financial’s business insurance department. He will be based in the company’s Camden office. Bookham was previously employed as the executive director of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce. www.alleninsuranceandfinancial.com EUGENE CONLOGUE has been hired as the new town manager for Houlton. Conlogue previously worked as the town manager for Millinocket, a job he held for 13 years. www.houlton-maine.com KATHIE NORWOOD has left her post as the director of Downeast Health Services, where she worked for nine years, to join Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems Healthcare Charities as their chief operating officer. www.healthcarecharities.org 10 / Bangor Metro November 2012
DANA GREEN, PA-C, DFAAPA, has joined
the staff of Penobscot Community Health Care in their diabetes specialty department. Previously Green served as the director of St. Joseph Healthcare’s Diabetes Institute of Behavioral Medicine. www.pchc.com Melissa A. Pawloski has recently
joined the law firm of Eaton Peabody. She is an associate in the business law and estate planning and wealth transfer practice groups at the Bangor office. www.eatonpeabody.com SCOTT A. OXLEY has been elected
director of Bangor Savings Bank as well a trustee of Bangor Bancorp, and the Bangor Savings Bank Foundation. Oxley is senior vice president of support services at Affiliated Healthcare Systems in Bangor. www.bangor.com Four new people have joined Penobscot Community Heath Care’s Pediatric Dental Residency program—AFSHAN BINTORY, DMD, PRASANTHI BOBBA , DDS, LASHICA YOUNG, DDS, and MARCUS WILKERSON, DDS. These residents are fully-licensed professionals who are receiving two years of specialized training at the Bangor facility. www.pchc.com The Ellsworth American has hired SALLY HUTCHINS as the publication’s accounting manager. For the past 38 years, Hutchins worked at Camden National Bank, most recently as a relationship manager for the bank’s wealth management and trust services division. www.ellsworthamerican.com The Reverend ROBERT GROVE-MARKWOOD was installed as the eleventh president of Bangor Theological Seminary in September. He will oversee the institution’s transition from a degreegranting seminary to a smaller organization that will provide continuing education. His term will last one year. www.bts.edu The Aroostook Medical Center (TAMC) has recently added nine new health care providers to their hospital. MEGHAN DINNEEN, FNP, joined TAMC’s Caribou Health Center; Dr. ANUJ KANDEL and PATRICK SAWYER, PA-C have joined
Aroostook General & Vascular Surgery Center; Dr. ROY KAPLAN joined TAMC’s anesthesia department; Dr. ROBERT LEATHERMAN joined TAMC’s radiology department; Dr. MARK MORIN joined TAMC’s Eye Care Services; ANNA NIKACHINA , MD, Ph.D. and Dr. DEENESH SAHAJPAL have joined the Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Center; and Dr. RACHEL SWARTZ joined the OB/ GYN & Midwifery Services. www.tamc.org
Awards Four area health care organizations have received a Celebrating Excellence Award from the Maine Health Care Association. The AROOSTOOK HEALTH CENTER in Presque Isle, ROSS MANOR and STILLWATER HEALTH CARE in Bangor, and DEXTER HEALTH CARE in Dexter have been honored for their excellence in caregiving, innovative programming, and quality. www.emhs.org Victory Media has included HUSSON UNIVERSITY on the 2013 Military Friendly Schools list, which honors the top 15% of colleges, universities, and trade schools in the country that are doing the most to embrace America’s military service members, veterans, and spouses as students. www.husson.edu Eaton Peabody shareholder Andy Hamilton has been named the Best Lawyers’ 2013 Bangor Land Use & Zoning Law “Lawyer of the Year.” He was honored with this distinction due to his particularly high rating by Best Lawyers, who compiles this list by conducting peer-review surveys. www.eatonpeabody.com Four employees within the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems have been honored with the Excellence in Caregiving award from the Maine Health Care Association: NICOLE BARTLETT, CNA-M and HAZEL HARVEY from Stillwater Health Care, KATHRYN HALL from Ross Manor, and VICKI JACKSON from Aroostook Medical Center. www.emhs.org The Maine Development Foundation has recently recognized several organizations and individuals during their 34th annual meeting. The Kenneth M. Curtis
Helpful Hermon
TWO YEARS AGO I began the process of relocating my business. I wanted to expand to start producing gluten-free mixes, and I needed more space. First I thought about building, but I couldn’t find a small lot to suit my needs. I wanted to be in Bangor, Brewer, Hampden, or Hermon, and the land I found was too expensive. I finally found an existing building in Hermon that was perfect—but it needed an upgrade to the power system. The town of Hermon bent over backwards to help me out and make it happen—saving me money as well as stress. —Jim Collins, The New England Cupboard
Let me make the case for locating your business in Hermon. Call or write me today. Ron Harriman Economic Development Director
www.hermon.net s Grantron@aol.com
947-8595 s 1-800-648-8335
www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 11
biz buzz Leadership Award was given to BRENDA COMMANDER, the tribal chief of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. The GREATER SOMERSET PUBLIC HEALTH COLLABORATIVE was given the
Champion Award for Health, Wellness, and Safety. And UMaine professor DOUG HALL, president of Eureka! Ranch, was honored with the Champion Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Capacity. www.mdf.org
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STILLWATER HEALTH CARE in Bangor has been awarded the 2012 Bronze American Health Care Association’s National Center for Assisted Living National Quality Award. This national award demonstrates an increased commitment to quality care. www.emhs.org
The Department of Transportation has awarded $540,000 for the final phase of a rehabilitation project at the MILLINOCKET MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. The money comes to the airport through a Federal Aviation Administration Grant. www.millinocket.org The PINE CREST DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION in Dover-Foxcroft recently received a $99,000 grant to construct a high-speed data center at the former American Woolen Mill/ Moosehead Manufacturing plant. The grant is being provided through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business Enterprise Grant program. www.pcedc.org The National Science Foundation has awarded $250,000 to the MOUNT DESERT ISLAND LABORATORY, the SCHOODIC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH CENTER INSTITUTE, and the
National Park Service to help fund a project called Pathway to BioTrails. The project will involve members of the public in monitoring animal and plant species in Acadia National Park and Frenchman Bay. www.mdibl.org
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sight ings
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1: Jim Sawyer, Mike Harkins, Matt LaHaye, and Jack Martel placed first in the Men’s First Flight at the 15th Annual Schoodic Scramble benefitting Maine Coast Memorial Hospital. 2: Event organizers for the 2nd Annual Midcoast Breast Cancer Classic pictured from left: Sue Wootton, Janice Ogier, Linda Durrell, Connie Welt, Martha Bouchard, Helen Plourd, Bobbie Andrus, Kathy Sprowl, and Tory Reiff.
14 / Bangor Metro November 2012
3: Julie Williams and Ruth Clark at the September Bangor Greendrinks event hosted by the University of Maine Museum of Art. 4: The Haus of Paradigm Dance Crew poses with the Eastport Pirate Festival co-chair Don Dunbar. From left: Terri MacDonald, Sara Moreshead, April O’Grady, Don Dunbar, Ao Arts, and Erin Switzer.
Photos: #4 and #5 by don dunbar; #6 by susan raab
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5: The winners of the kids’ pageant at the Eastport Pirate Festival from left: Finn Sheehan, Minsoss Sapiel-Bobaotilla, Liam Bowen, Denali Wagstaff, Baylee Cummings, and Noah Carver. 6: Rob Beal and his daughter Vada at the Bangor Greendrinks event held at the University of Maine Museum of Art. 7: Anne Schmidt and Jacie Fish at a recent Bangor Fusion Noontime Network luncheon at Wellman Commons in Bangor.
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8: Amy and Charlie Sidman dance the night away during Bar Harborâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent Fashion Night Out. 9: Brenda Commander, Cheryl Miller, and Ed Cervone at the annual meeting of the Maine Development Foundation. Commander, the tribal chief of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, was honored with the Kenneth M. Curtis Leadership Award.
www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 15
movers & shakers
“M
An Agent of Change The leader of Pen Bay Healthcare, Wade C. Johnson, has lived all over the country. Now settled in Midcoast Maine, his goal is to help make Pen Bay one of the best healthcare organizations in the nation. By Henry Garfield
y interest is in change leadership,” says Wade Johnson, the new president and chief executive officer for Pen Bay Healthcare in Rockport. “They were looking for a change guy, and that’s why they brought me in.” On the job since February 2012, Johnson recently helped launch an initiative dubbed Excellence Always, a program to enhance patient and family experiences throughout Pen Bay’s health care system. With approximately 1,600 employees, Pen Bay Healthcare is the largest employer in Knox County. It includes Pen Bay Medical Center, the Quarry Hill Assisted Living Center, Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care and Hospice, the Knox Center for Long Term Care, and numerous specialty and primary care clinics in the Midcoast area. Under Johnson’s leadership, Pen Bay has partnered with a national firm to conduct a top-to-bottom assessment of its services. “We identified several areas that need improvement, including patient experience, clinical care, and finances,” Johnson says. “We have already begun making significant changes toward that improvement.” Johnson’s mother was a nurse, and growing up, first in Wisconsin, and then in Texas, he was never far from the field of medicine. A member of the Mormon Church, he spent two years doing missionary work in Argentina before completing degrees in Psychology and Business. He worked in the energy industry before turning to health care. Prior to joining Pen Bay, Johnson served as CEO of for Weiser Memorial Hospital in Boise, Idaho. He has also held senior administrative positions for Guth-
prove and change. We have a lot of people who have been here for a long time and who want to move forward.” Among the changes Johnson wants to implement are improvements in the patient re-admittance rate. Pen Bay was one of 10 hospitals in the state to be penalized by Medicare this year for a higher than acceptable rate of patients re-admitted within 30 days of being discharged. A new chief medical officer has been hired, and the hospital has initiated a riskassessment strategy that includes home health visits, ongoing education about medications, and regular follow-ups with a patient’s primary care physician. Johnson also wants to work more with the local business community and the schools to help drive down the cost of insurance. “We’re doing some great things here, but we need to do more,” he says. “I’m meeting on a monthly basis with community leaders, talking about health and wellness and what they’d like to see us do. And we have to get out into the schools to provide education around prevention in a meaningful way.” Another challenge is placing Pen Bay on a solid financial footing—no easy task given the shifting political sands of health care reform and the tardiness of the state in reimbursing hospitals for MaineCare costs. Pen Bay is owed nearly $16 million in MaineCare reimbursements. “We’re fundamentally changing the payment system for health care,” he says. “But I believe that once you focus on delivering high-quality services, the financial piece will follow. It really comes down to working with our state legislators, because they’re the ones who hold the purse strings.”
rie Healthcare System in Sayre, Pennsylvania, and for Providence Health Services in Medford, Oregon, and has been a guest lecturer at Brigham Young UniversityIdaho and Idaho State University. “Pen Bay can be among the best hospitals in the country,” he says. “I have been extremely impressed with the quality of physicians and the level of training among the staff. And I’ve been impressed with the organization’s readiness to im16 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Though he’s lived all over the country, this is the first time Johnson has worked in New England. He and his wife chose the Camden-Rockport area for the educational opportunities for their four children and outdoor recreation. “We have a kid in every school in town,” he says. “We like to hike and fish. As a kid, I had L.L. Bean stuff. That’s all I knew about Maine. I still have my L.L. Bean backpack from fifth grade.”
Photo: courtesy of pen bay healthcare
“Pen Bay can be among the best hospitals in the country.” —Wade C. Johnson
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metro health
Lori Donley and Durward Humphrey
Health Care
The Katahdin Valley Health Center is working to provide services to several of Maine’s rural communities. Through collaboration— not competition—they are growing by leaps and bounds. By Shelley Farrington
18 / Bangor Metro November 2012
W
Photos: melanie Brooks
Creating Access to
hen the Milliken Memorial Hospital in Island Falls closed in 1974, people were scared. Where would local citizens go for their health care needs? Millinocket is 40 miles south and Houlton is a 35-minute drive northeast. A group of citizens from Patten came forward and started a clinic they named Katahdin Valley Health Center (KVHC) in the back of Merrow’s Department Store. Thirty-eight years later, the Federally Qualified Health Center has expanded from its one site in Patten, with 11 employees, to include three more sites, in Island Falls, Houlton, and Millinocket, with 97 employees in all. The budget has grown, too—from $500,000 to over $8 million today, which helps provide
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metro health medical, dental, optometry, and behavioral health services to people from Mars Hill to Brownville. “It’s all about access,” says CEO Durward Humphrey, who has been with KVHC since 2000. “How can we make services accessible to the people in our communities?” That emphasis on access was never more important to people in the Katahdin region than it was in the early 2000s, as they rode the roller coaster of the local paper mill bankruptcy and eventual closure. Both Humphrey and COO Lori Donley are proud of the way KVHC responded to the mill crisis. During those years, KVHC began offering a lifeline to families dealing with lost jobs and wages, with an income-based sliding fee scale and a prescription drug program that provides free and/or low-cost drugs to patients. In 2004, KVHC received an expansion grant to open a clinic in Millinocket. They ended up building two—one for dental services and the other offering medical and behavioral services—which started servicing the community in 2005. More recently, KVHC consolidated its offerings in Millinocket under one roof, with a new $2.3-million facility, paid for by the Federal Affordable Care Act. Humphrey says that the consolidation provides patients and providers with a more efficient and collaborative environment for care. Instead of shuttling between two (or more) buildings for their health care needs, KVHC patients now have the convenience of being seen at just one building. In addition, if a patient’s dentist needs to consult his primary care physician before doing a procedure, all he or she has to do is walk across the hall. All health care practitioners can now easily get together and talk about current healthcare topics and trends, which fosters a more collaborative effort, Humphries says. Another issue KVHC recently tackled was the need to provide more walk-in care to handle non-emergency needs in the Houlton area. In 2012, KVHC opened its first open-access clinic. Patients from all areas and incomes are seen on a first-come, first-served basis, and those requiring urgent care are referred to Houlton Regional Hospital. Donley said this service saves patients a costly trip to the ER and also helps the hospital to run more efficiently. 20 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Blue Hill Memorial Hospital offers patients an intimate setting for care.
The Katahdin Valley Health Center in Patten.
“Our patients, our employees, and our community are our priorities, and we put all of our resources right back into our programs.”—Lori Donley “Our lower-level visits are down so we have to assume that people are going to the clinic, and that’s good because that’s what they’re there for,” says Tom Moakler, CEO of Houlton Regional Hospital, which has seen about 450 fewer patients and treated fewer non-emergencies between August 2011 and August 2012. “We applaud their efforts.” Because KVHC’s open-access clinic in Houlton has been so successful, similar clinics are being considered in Patten and Millinocket, as part of the organization’s long-term plan. Most of this much-needed expansion can be attributed to a successful grantwriting team, headed by Donley. With three other health care outlets serving patients in the Katahdin region—Millinocket Regional Hospital, Houlton Regional Hospital, and the Health Access Network— Donley makes sure the grants they apply for help them offer something these other providers don’t. “It doesn’t make sense for KVHC to compete with other clinics or hospitals, because it doesn’t help patients or in-
crease access,” Donley says. She works to make sure that what KVHC implements will be sustainable beyond the grant, and that it isn’t being offered by another health care agency. Thanks to a federal grant, KVHC can count on at least $1.9 million yearly for its budget, giving it an advantage over the local community hospitals. But for Donley and Humphrey, It’s about collaboration—not competition. Donley is proud of the partnerships KVHC has with other agencies, which includes The Aroostook Medical Center, Community Health and Counseling Services, Mountain Heights Health Care, and the Visiting Nurses of Aroostook, to name a few. And thanks to a telemedicine and distance-learning grant, all of these medical centers are linked together, creating a community of caring in Maine’s most rural area. “I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in terms of access,” Donley says. “Our patients, our employees, and our community are our priorities, and we put all of our resources right back into our programs.”
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metro fitness
Are You Among the Elite?
A
re you part of an elite group of Americans who are able to do more to enjoy their golden years than the rest? It’s a group in which only 5% of Americans can claim membership—a group that, no matter its age, has more energy, sleeps better, and has more spring in its step. This elite group is made up of people who are getting some kind of exercise on a near-daily basis. Less than 20% of us get the recommended level of exercise, which is about 30 minutes of exercise a day, five times a week, and includes two full-body strength-training workouts. More than 25% of adults don’t work out at all. I came across those facts after watching one of my personal training groups go through a rigorous workout routine one day. A couple clients were feeling a little discouraged that the workout was challenging and wondering about the state of their fitness. I quickly pointed out that the workout was challenging for them on purpose because they were part of an elite group that could do the workout safely. Then I started wondering how elite they actually were, as these clients are in the gym almost every day. I wasn’t surprised, really, when I
22 / Bangor Metro November 2012
found the statistics. Finding recent statistics about Maine residents specifically was more challenging, but East Coast residents in general tend to be among the more active Americans, although Maine’s overweight and obesity rates are hanging in pretty high. In 2010, 70.9% of men and 56.6% of women were considered obese or overweight. The awesome part of being part of this elite group is that consistent, neardaily exercise helps with a whole bunch of areas of your life—from maintaining your weight to boosting your sex life— and allows you to be more active in your retirement years. It lifts your mood, fights disease, increases your energy, promotes sleep, and can even be fun. Despite their good-natured complaining, my group of training clients rarely miss their sessions! You don’t have to do grueling workouts to be part of this group (although you can, if you’re able, and if you enjoy them). All you have to do is do some sort of movement that causes you to break a sweat for a half-hour most days of the week. Maybe it’s taking a brisk walk. Maybe it’s trying a dance class. Maybe it’s pumping some iron in the basement or taking a group exercise class that you find fun. Or maybe
it’s a little bit of all those things. Right now, the fitness industry seems to be experiencing a more-harder-faster boom that can seem intimidating—and just plain punishing—to those of us who don’t work out on a regular basis. I’ve probably spent way too much time thinking about these things, but it both interests and frustrates me that so many people have a hard time sticking with a workout program. What can we do to help improve fitness-program compliance? What will help people most in sticking with a regimen? Making exercise fun and rewarding seems to be the best route. So find something you love to do, and then find a buddy or two to join you. Studies show that 80% of us prefer to exercise with someone else, so if you’re part of the majority, teaming up with others is a great option. Start to move regularly and consistently, and then you can claim to be part of that elite 5% group, on your way to enjoying a bunch of health-related benefits. Wendy Watkins is a personal trainer and lifestyle coach at Bangor-Brewer Athletic Club in Brewer.
Photo: istockphoto/thinkstock.com
Studies show your body benefits from 30 minutes of exercise on a daily basis. by wendy watkins
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feature story
Healin Hand A Day in the Life of a Nurse Nursing in the 21st century includes much more than knowing how to read a thermometer and blood pressure cuff. These three nurses—Connie Barrett, Zita Buck, and Daphyne Dean—do everything from deliver babies to checking on patients hundreds of miles away via videoconferencing. While technology is constantly changing how they do their job, one thing remains steady—a passion for caregiving and commitment to service. By Henry Garfield / Photos by Mark Mccall
24 / Bangor Metro November 2012
g s www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 25
feature story
T
hey are the unsung heroes of the medical profession. If the scrub techs get the guts and the doctors get the glory, nurses get the hard work and precious few of the accolades, although in the words of one nurse interviewed for this story, some patients “think we’re gods.” It’s the nurses who make sure that patients get the proper doses of medication, who interact with worried family members, who set the stage for surgical procedures, and who keep the engine of the American health care system humming along. The profession of nursing is as varied as it is vast. There is no such thing as a typical nursing job, or a typical work day. Nurses often “float” from one department to another as needed, which requires a range of skills and experience. Some nurses work administratively, some work clinically, many do both. Rapid changes in technology require an ongoing knowledge of computers and electronic equipment. Emergency situations call for sound judgment, quick thinking, and grace under pressure. The job is often stressful, but can be equally rewarding. In talking with three nurses in the Bangor Metro area about their jobs, one word that never came up was “boring.”
Zita Buck There aren’t any patients in the virtual Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where Zita Buck spends many of her days at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. But during the course of her 12-hour shift, she will interact with patients at EMMC, as well as nine other hospitals, through a two-way communications system that’s streamlining the process of intensive care. Those hospitals include Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield, Inland Hospital in Waterville, Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln, Millinocket Regional Hospital, Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, and Calais Regional Hospital. “The virtual ICU is a two-way audio26 / Bangor Metro November 2012
“It’s amazing what you can see with the cameras. I can look at a patient’s wrist band. I’ve checked pupils with the camera. It’s awesome” —Zita Buck visual system that’s becoming a nationwide standard,” Buck says. “We are not at the bedside, but we can camera in and assist the nurses in any way they need us to. If there’s a new admission, we can do all the computer documenting for them, except for their physical assessment. They can stay at the bedside with the patient, give the medications they need to, and
get the patient settled. There’s so much computer work involved with a new admission. We’ve also done some studies with post-op heart and cardiac patients. We’re able to extubate the patients quicker, because we can do a lot of the computer charting for the nurse, so they can physically take care of the patient.” Buck’s job requires a great deal of ver-
satility and experience. She works three 12-hour days at EMMC: one day in the virtual ICU, one in the regular ICU, and one in the CCU (Critical Care Unit). “We’re required to do bedside nursing at least one shift a week, though I actually do more than that,” she says. “Before you can work in the virtual ICU, you have to have three years of experience in critical care. We
also have to take extra computer classes. We upgrade so much that we have to go to classes quite frequently. I still do a lot of the bedside things. I go to pretty much all of the skills days, all of the upgrades as far as the new equipment. I do a lot of education at the bedside with the nurses sometimes. For instance, if they don’t know how to use the computer monitor in the room, I’ll
go into the room and help them.” Continuing education has been a big part of Buck’s professional life. Told in high school that she was a good fit for a secretarial job, she enrolled in the court and conference reporting program at Husson College (now Husson University). After discovering that wasn’t what she wanted to do, she switched to the medical assistwww.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 27
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“We’re very keyed in to making sure patients have the best care from a quality standpoint, as well as a customer service standpoint.” —Connie Barrett
ing program, and subsequently worked in a doctor’s office in Dexter for five and a half years before deciding to enroll in the nursing program at Eastern Maine Community College. That led to a job in the emergency room at Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield and per diem work at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor. “For a short while I worked in the operating room at Sebasticook and helped out in the endoscopy department and things like that,” she 28 / Bangor Metro November 2012
says. “And while I was in nursing school I worked at EMMC in the lab.” In 2008, she was hired to work in the ICU department at EMMC. While working full-time she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN) from the University of Maine at Orono. She still works per diem one or two days a month in the ER at Sebasticook and puts in an extra half day periodically at EMMC. Her day starts between 6 and 6:30
a.m., when she arrives at EMMC from her home in Newport. “I get my coffee on the way in—gotta have my coffee,” she says. “I punch in by 6:23 on my virtual ICU days. We always give a bedside report. Even in the virtual ICU, we still have report sheets, and we report on all of our patients. When I’m in the computer room, I monitor anywhere from 20 to 34 patients. We give a quick report on each one. Basically, we tell the other nurses why they’re here, if
“...great value...” they’re on any drips, how critical they are, and what the plan is for that patient. It’s verbal, but because we have so many patients, we also have cheat sheets, where we have everything written down.” She then starts going through each patient’s charts and looking at their labs, the medications they’re on, reading their histories and their physicals, seeing what the doctor’s notes are, and what their plan is for the day. “I prioritize which patients are more sick than others,” she says. “After I determine that, I start camera-ing in to the rooms, checking the pumps and the monitors and saying hi to the family and introducing myself, letting them know what my job is. Then I see if the nurses need me for any reason. That’s pretty much what I do in there all day long. After I get through one round, it’s time to start again.” She will often interact with patients and families, both at EMMC and the nine outside hospitals served by the virtual ICU, through the audio-visual connection. She can also use the camera to directly assess patients. “It’s amazing what you can see with the cameras,” she says. “I can look at a patient’s wrist band. I’ve checked pupils with the camera. It’s awesome.” In her spare time, Buck plays soccer and softball, and travels to her son’s high school sports events. “I like the flexibility that I have,” she says of her life and her job. “I like to learn new things, and work with different people. We’re going to start watching some emergency room patients, in our trauma rooms and also our critical care patients over there. So that’s going to be a nice transition for me, too.”
Connie Barrett “My day is always different,” says Connie Barrett, chief nursing officer at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital. “I usually start out making rounds in the patient care area, seeing how the staff is doing, making sure they have everything they need for the day. I spend a fair amount of time in meetings with staff, patients, and community members. At some point during the day, I’ll meet with inpatients and ask them about their care.” Barrett spends some of her days at Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in Brewer, participating in teams working on strategic system-wide initiatives. Blue Hill Memorial Hospital is a member of the EMHS network.
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feature story “I come to work, and depending on where the need is the greatest, that’s where I’ll be assigned. Sometimes I’m in three departments in one day.” —Daphyne Deane
30 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Born in Mercy Hospital in Portland, Barrett spent time in New York and Massachusetts before returning to Maine for good in 1986. She has a law degree as well as a nursing degree. Before attending law school, she spent time as a mounted police officer in Manhattan, and she keeps and rides horses to this day. “In hindsight, I recognize what a great opportunity it was,” she says. “I rode for crowd control and dealt with many different kinds of people. I think that’s where I formed my interest in nursing. I was in emergency rooms quite a lot and was amazed at what paramedics could do.” Barrett looked into law enforcement opportunities in Maine before deciding, with a law degree already in hand, to go back to school for a nursing degree. She has a certification in psychiatric and mental health nursing. “The common thread between law and nursing is service to the community,” she says. “Many times when I was working as a psych nurse I would leave the hospital telling myself I had the best job in the world. I loved being able to impact the quality of life of another person. Nurses get to do that every day.” Because Blue Hill Memorial is a small hospital, “people wear a lot of hats,” she says. In addition to her duties as chief nursing officer, Barrett is the hospital’s risk manager, compliance officer, and privacy officer. It’s not uncommon for her to get calls at all hours of the day and night to troubleshoot situations that arise at the hospital. “We’re very keyed in to making sure patients have the best care from a quality standpoint, as well as a customer service standpoint,” she says. “I need to be available, and I am available.” Additionally, Barrett is a practitioner of Reiki, a relaxation technique. “I’m always interested in exploring the mind-bodyspirit connection,” she says. “What I like most about nursing is that every day I learn something about life and about myself.”
Daphyne Deane Daphyne Deane has worked at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft since 1997. She works primarily in obstetrics, but also on the medical/surgical and intensive care units and in the emergency room. Mayo Regional Hospital is similar in size to Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, and, like the other two nurses profiled in this piece, Deane enjoys having the training
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that enables her to work in several different areas. “I’m always scheduled for obstetrics,” she says. “I come to work, and depending on where the need is the greatest, that’s where I’ll be assigned. Sometimes I’m in three departments in one day. I asked to train in different departments, so I would have more options.” Deane works three 12-hour days, from 7 in the morning to 7:30 at night. A native of Guilford, she now lives in Sangerville. She has an Associate Degree in Nursing from Kennebec Valley Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Maine in Orono. “We deliver 150 to 170 babies a year,” she says. “But it’s not constant. It varies from month to month. Sometimes we’re really 32 / Bangor Metro November 2012
busy; other times it slows down a bit.” Deane says the small size of the hospital enables nurses to give personal attention to each patient. “We meet them before they have their babies, take care of them during the delivery, educate them, and send them home,” she says. “We’re able to do a lot of ante-partum care, if there are complications with a pregnancy.” Her interest in nursing began when she took care of her disabled father, who suffered from chronic pulmonary disease and was homebound for much of her youth. He died when Deane was in college. Prior to working at Mayo, she worked in a nursing home. When not working, she enjoys quilting, hiking, motorcycling, and spending time with her husband and kids. “Our
youngest is quite involved in sports, and we go to the games,” she says. She enjoys the flexibility of her job. “I like the ER, because it’s fast-paced. You see different things; you get a different variety of patients. I guess what I like best about my job is interacting with the patients. When you have sad situations, you can make people feel better.” That applies to co-workers as well as patients. “I really like Mayo,” she says, “not just my department, but the whole hospital. There are some nurses who have been working here since it opened, 30 years ago. We’ve had some nurses who have had cancer, and everybody has helped to care for them. It’s like a family. You have your home family, and then you have your work family.”
feature story
Internet
for All Many people across the state take their Internet access for granted. But it’s a different story for people who live in rural areas. Access to broadband can mean a lifeline between a tiny speck on the Maine map and the rest of the world for individuals and businesses. It’s still a work in progress, but we’ve come a long way. By Naomi Graychase
34 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Photo: Šgoodshoot/thinkstock.com
www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 35
feature story
I
n 2007, Christina Perkins moved to take a job at a law firm in Bucksport. She bought an old farmhouse with a barn for her animals and some farmland in the even smaller neighboring town of Orland, just a few miles from her workplace. It was only after she moved in that she realized she had no Internet access. “When I lived in Litchfield, we had dial-up until 2006. It was awful,” Perkins says. “My new house was near Route 1 and Bucksport, which had broadband, so I didn’t think to check before I bought it. All those providers that you see advertised on TV, they all came back with, ‘Sorry, we can’t provide service out your way.’ I’m just a few feet from Route 1. How can that be?” The answer to that question is “backhaul.” Without affordable access to backhaul—what those in the industry call the “middle mile”—Internet Service Providers 36 / Bangor Metro November 2012
(ISPs) cannot afford to bring broadband over the “last mile,” directly into homes or businesses in rural locations like Perkins’. This is a problem that Maine’s business and technology thinkers have been troubleshooting for years; since, in fact, the days of dial-up. Fletcher Kittredge, CEO of Biddefordbased telecommunications company, GWI, is one of those thinkers. “There’s an informal group of people that were interested in rural access to broadband going back to the point the Internet first came around,” says Kittredge. “In the early days, the group coalesced around dial-up—getting it available so people in Maine didn’t have to make a long-distance call to connect. That was in 1994. Then, over the next couple of years, the group—which consisted of citizens, educators, rural business people, state employees, and people in economic development—got together and
the next thing was wiring up the schools with the Maine School and Library Network (MSLN). At the time, it was one of the leading networks in the nation.” Unofficially formed in 1996, today the MSLN is a service of Networkmaine, a unit of the University of Maine System. Funded by the Federal E-Rate program and the Maine Telecommunications Education Access Fund (MTEAF), it brings Internet services to nearly 1,000 schools and libraries throughout the state. As technology and bandwidth demands evolved, it was clear that the Internet access needs of rural Mainers were quickly going to outstrip the capabilities of dial-up. Years before the first iPhone or iPad, the focus of the thinkers and the dreamers in those informal group meetings turned to the question of how to bring broadband into the underserved sections of the state. These business and community leaders could see that the
Photo: mark Mccall
Christina Perkins outside her Orland home.
demand for fast access with large datatransfer capabilities in homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals was growing. Meeting that demand would be essential to Maine’s future. “With the [technological] changes in the last decade, there was concern that
or a railroad; it’s critical for economic development, but the other three things are also very important. With telemedicine in rural areas, they can have a video consultation with a doctor in Boston. You can get licenses and permits online from your local government. You can do distance
“All those providers that you see advertised on TV, they all came back with, ‘Sorry, we can’t provide service out your way.’ I’m just a few feet from Route 1. How can that be?”
Photo: courtesy of axiom technologies
—Christina Perkins people in rural areas didn’t have access to broadband,” says Kittredge. “In 2005, Governor Baldacci put together a broadband infrastructure task force, a blueribbon committee for ideas, and out of that came the ConnectME Authority and a tax on telecom services to promote rural broadband.” In 2006, the Maine state legislature created the ConnectME Authority to develop and carry out its broadband strategy. A small organization, with a staff of only three, the Authority’s primary mission is to provide funding resources through grants for broadband projects in rural areas of the state. That funding comes from a tax of one quarter of 1% of all instate retail telecommunications revenue. If you subscribe to Time Warner Cable, for instance, you’ll see a line item in the Taxes and Fees section of your monthly bill that says “ConnectME Fund.” That money—generally less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber—is earmarked for the expansion of broadband into sparsely populated regions. “We just finished our seventh grant round,” says Phil Lindley, the Authority’s executive director. “We’ve awarded $8 million in grants to 99 projects, all over the state—Sweden, Lincolnville, Caribou, Appleton, and Jefferson—all over the state.” Why is broadband access important to rural Mainers? “I think the best way to put it is that broadband access enables economic development, distance learning, telemedicine, and access to and participation in government services,” Lindley says. “It’s like having a highway or a canal
education and e-learning. Those things are the four critical things that broadband enables in Maine. Broadband removes the barriers of space and time.” The grant money from the ConnectME Authority is one of the things that has enabled ISPs serving rural Mainers to cross their biggest hurdle, bringing broadband access into areas that the main providers, such as Time Warner and Fairpoint, can’t or won’t touch because of household density limitations or technical difficulties related to the infrastructure. One of the ISPs that has received grant
funding from ConnectME is Axiom Technologies in Machias. Axiom is a “last-mile” broadband provider, which means it, like dozens of other ISPs throughout the state, brings broadband into homes, businesses, and other subscriber locations, often using Wi-Fi networks. “We are a recipient of ConnectME funds,” says Susan Corbett, Axiom CEO. “We’ve received multiple [state and federal] grants; without it we couldn’t put broadband here in Washington County.” While the Authority has been helping ISPs to make inroads into rural areas, it doesn’t have the capital to solve the real problem—affordable backhaul. “In a lot of the rural areas where we’ve done grants, the grantees provide last mile connections to households and businesses,” says Lindley. “And many have said, ‘We could go further out, if we had more available and less costly middlemile facilities’.” Middle-mile—or backhaul—infrastructure is, in effect, very much like a highway system. If no highway is in place, then traveling by car across long distances is slow, bumpy, and inefficient, and it is more costly to hire a cab, for instance, to drive you along winding dirt roads to your isolated destination than it would be to buy a bus ticket to transport you, along with lots of other people, between two stops on a highway route. If multi-
Susan Corbett, CEO of Machiasbased Axiom Technologies.
www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 37
lane roads and bridges are built, travel can speed up, and costs can go down. It’s the same for data. The problem, in both scenarios, is that highways—digital or otherwise— cost money to build. One mile of fiber optics costs more than $20,000 to deploy. In other words, in order for Maine ISPs to provide rural residents with the broad-
band they need, a digital infrastructure costing tens of millions of dollars would have to be built. But, because of the slow and negligible return on investment in areas with small populations, it seemed impossible to create a realistic business model that could fund the digital highway. Enter an opportunity, in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvest-
Maine Connectivity
This map from the Maine Fiber Company, Inc. shows the core routes for the Three Ring Binder project. The blue segments are complete and in service. The red segments are under construction, and will be completed this year. 38 / Bangor Metro November 2012
ment Act, and an idea from the thinkers for an 1,100-mile fiber optic network, eventually named “Three Ring Binder” because, as Lindley says, “Like a threering binder that holds all your papers together, the Three Ring Binder will bind together the most rural areas of Maine with three interconnected rings of the highest available technology.” Jeff Letourneau, Executive Director for Networkmaine, is one of the thinkers who have spent the last couple of decades working to find creative ways to expand Maine’s Internet access. “Back when the Obama election came about, and their transition team started talking about various stimulus packages, they asked each state what programs were shovel-ready,” says Letourneau. “So, I called Phil Lindley and asked what the state was going to put forward. The answer was nothing, because there was nothing shovel-ready. So that afternoon, we pulled together a phone call with state and university folks.” Acting quickly, Letourneau and leaders from the University of Maine, along with Lindley, Kittredge, and other people who had been active in the quest to bring universal broadband to Maine, including different broadband companies, came up with an idea that seemed like it could work. “This was in the spring of 2009,” says Kittredge, “and pretty quickly, it was determined that something like Three Ring Binder was the way to go. It was quick to figure out technically what needed to be done. What was a problem was funding it.” While there was ample federal grant money up for grabs, the grant funding would need to be matched at 20%. For a project of this scale, that meant that whoever wrote the grant would need to supply at least $7 million in capital. “UMaine knew it needed to happen, but with the way the grant was set up, the university just didn’t have the money,” Kittredge says. “The state didn’t have the money, either, so it was going to have to be private industry. They were trying to get the stimulus package kicked off quickly, so there was very little time. The only way it seemed it could work, was for GWI to provide the matching funds. So we put in the grant request in the fall of 2009. We had two weeks to write the application for a $32 million grant.”
map: courtesy of maine fiber company
feature story
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Broadband access enables economic development, distance learning, telemedicine, and access to and participation in government services.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Phil Lindley Despite the potential windfall of stimulus funds and the quick thinking of Letourneau, Kittredge, and others, the Three Ring Binder project almost didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t happen. There was concern about who would own the network and how this would affect competition in the industry. Fortunately, the leaders at GWI envisioned a way around this problem. A new, independent company would be formed to oversee the construction,
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feature story GWI CEO Fletcher Kittredge examines a network map at the Biddeford-based company’s network monitoring system.
40 / Bangor Metro November 2012
network was completed on time and under budget. Maine-based company, Tilson Technology Management managed the actual construction process. According to Jeff McCarthy, VP for business development at MFC, the surplus funds will be used to expand and strengthen the network. “Certain things are allowable, and we’re exploring more of those same things,” says McCarthy. “We’re not under budget enough to get excited, but there are the practical uses. We will
“The Three Ring Binder Project will be remembered as the initiative that helped truly connect Maine to the world.” —Congressman Mike Michaud spend it wisely to make it easier or less expensive to utilize the network going forward. Re-gen sites are a good example and building to the border in Canada.” Even before the network was entirely complete, ISPs and their customers began to experience the benefits. “Three Ring Binder—it put it us on a level playing field,” says Corbett. “When
And on a smaller scale, as of March 2012, thanks to Three Ring Binder’s fiber optic network, which runs along Route 1 in Orland, a major carrier was finally able to buy the affordable backhaul it needed to bring high-speed Internet over the last mile (or last 100 feet, in this case) to Perkins’ farmhouse. She now happily surfs the Web from home, without any weath-
Photo courtesy of gwi
maintenance, and leasing of the 1,100mile high-capacity fiber-optic network in the state of Maine. The network would be built with public and private funds, and it would guarantee open access. “The reason we got the grant was they were looking for open access,” says Kittredge. “The idea was that they didn’t want to fund a network that would be closed and give a competitive advantage to one company or carrier. What we [at GWI] said was that an entirely new company would be set up, Maine Fiber Company. And it would not be owned or controlled in any way by GWI, and it would build, own, and operate the network, and it would raise the money.” The stimulus grant was awarded. $25.4 million in funding was provided through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), which was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. It is monitored by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Under the guidance of former GWI board member, Dwight Allison, Maine Fiber Company (MFC) was formed, the private capital for the matching funds was raised, and on September 28, 2012, Maine Fiber Company announced that the entire 1,100-mile
you’re looking at bringing a business into a rural area, and that business looks at its cost, one difference is that today, broadband should not be the deterrent. If I have to bring a new business into Maine [before Three Ring Binder], will I go to Portland where broadband costs a few hundred dollars a month or to Machias where it costs a few thousand a month? Today, it doesn’t matter. Thanks to Three Ring Binder, I can get bulk bandwidth for the same amount of money here in Machias.” By the time MFC officially announced completion of the network in September, its fiber optics were already being used to provide cost-effective broadband to over 50 commercial locations and 80 community-anchor institutions, such as hospitals, rural healthcare clinics, community colleges, University of Maine campuses, libraries, government facilities, and public safety departments throughout the state. GWI is now partnering with the towns of Old Town and Orono to build out a Gigabit Main Street network that could make the University of Maine a leader in the national Gig-U initiative to create zones of economic innovation around college campuses across the country. “The Three Ring Binder Project will be remembered as the initiative that helped truly connect Maine to the world,” says Congressman Mike Michaud. “It has already directly connected so many critical Maine institutions, health centers, business hubs, community centers, and universities. There is no doubt that this project’s completion will help position our state for future growth.”
Mayo Surgical Associates
Committed to excellence within our community. er-related problems, download limits, or sky-high fees. Perkins had never heard of Three Ring Binder. But she is now grateful for the public-private cooperation that enabled the initiative that finally allowed her to Skype with her family in Europe, stream German television shows, and have teleconferences with colleagues and clients, all from the comfort of her very own—very rural—Maine home.
Kudos Some words of praise from Maine’s political leaders: “Broadband access is critical for education, healthcare, research, and improves quality of life. Unfortunately, Maine has the lowest rate of service in New England for households with Internet access, and the areas of northern, western, and central Maine are particularly underserved. The Three Ring Binder fiber optic network broadband expansion will help close this digital divide and open new opportunities for job creation across our state.” —Senator Susan Collins
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“Reliable, high speed Internet is critical to growing Maine’s economy. Without access to broadband, it’s getting increasingly hard for even the smallest businesses to compete in the modern economy.” —Congresswoman Chellie Pingree “With the creation of the Three Ring Binder, Maine is better positioned to attract new companies, new investment, and new jobs in areas we could have never imagined possible just 10 years ago.” —DECD Commissioner George Gervais www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 41
a piece of maine: skowhegan
A Quintessential Small Town Skowhegan’s rich history is shaping the future of this New England town on the banks of the Kennebec River. By Tom Avila / Photos by Douglas A. Beck
T
hey are phrases we’ve all read at one time or another: “the quintessential New England village;” “a picture-perfect Maine town.” These are meant to evoke a picture in our minds, if a storybook-like view of white clapboard houses and rocky coastline isn’t already brightly splashed across whatever glossy page you are looking at. But there’s a different kind of picture-perfect Maine town that is equally deserving of attention. Skowhegan is one of those towns. Occupying just over 60 square miles
42 / Bangor Metro November 2012
in the heart of the Kennebec River Valley, Skowhegan boasts all the beauty marks of a fine New England town—an architecturally interesting downtown, brilliant moments of natural wonder, and a state fair where pies, preserves, and goats still win blue ribbons. Plans being made to move Skowhegan into the future, to attract new businesses, residents, and visitors, are being made with one foot planted firmly in the past, in the town’s foundations. Agriculture. Manufacturing. The river. And, perhaps the town’s most valuable resource, a com-
munity of individuals with a willingness to work hard and the passion necessary to get things done. There are also a few surprises waiting for those unfamiliar with Skowhegan. Like the tallest sculptured depiction of a Native American in the world. A bakery whose cakes would give any Food Network show a run for its cupcake-coated money. An internationally-renowned artist residency program. The fact that part of this town is actually an island so precisely set into the flow of traffic and daily life that you might never realize it’s there. Whatever it is that gets you to leave the proverbial path most taken—I-95—to meander your way to this quintessential New England town, you’re sure to take something wonderful away.
Photos: courtesy of skowhegan History House, middle and bottom photos are from the Wyman Collection
HISTORY While some historians might reject the idea, one way of getting a sense of the peaceful coexistence of Skowhegan’s past and present is by enjoying a cold beverage on the deck of the Old Mill Pub, which hangs pleasantly over the Kennebec River. Look in one direction, and you can marvel at the engineering wonder and awesome power of the Kennebec Falls dam. Look in the other, and you have an undisturbed view of the winding river, appearing as untouched as when the town was settled in 1773. As was the case with the establishment of a good many places, Skowhegan’s history is strongly tied to its rivers. In fact, the rivers are how it earned its name. “Skowhegan is an old Indian name meaning ‘a place to watch.’ Because of the way the river bends, and with the island, it was a lookout point,” says Cory King, executive director of the Skowhegan Chamber of Commerce. “We’re the only Skowhegan in the country—very likely in the world.” The site of present-day Skowhegan and the surrounding region offered difficult, though not impossible, soil for planting and abundant fisheries for the Native community. In fact, some add the phrase “for fish” to the translation of the current town’s name, as in “a place to watch for fish.” In 1629, the Kennebec Patent, which included 3 million acres of land on a 15mile strip along the Kennebec River (the bounds of which were not completely clear, even in its issuance), was given to Massachusetts’ Plymouth Colony by
Top: A view from Elm Street across the North Channel of the Kennebec River toward Skowhegan Island, circa 1900. Middle: Gentlemen showing off their load of game animals on Dodge Street, circa 1907. Bottom: Weston & Brainerd Sawmill was located on Skowhegan Island behind the Federated Church on the natural sluiceway. Photo from the Wyman Collection. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 43
a piece of maine: skowhegan
Livestock at the Skowhegan State Fair.
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King Charles I of England. Following the violent expulsion of Native Americans from the area, European settlement began in earnest. Among the first families to head to the Kennebec River Valley were the Heywoods, who arrived from Massachusetts in 1771. Peter Heywood would become the man responsible for initiating the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manufacturing legacy, establishing a sawmill and a gristmill. The collection of small towns that would eventually meld together to form Skowhegan would become a booming center for manufacturing, wool and leather tanning, shoe factories, and paper mills. Philbrick Pottery transformed the red clay from the banks of the river that powered the rise of industry into jugs, milk-settling dishes, and bean crocks. Because of its location on the Kennebec River, Skowhegan was a major force in logging, a destination for trees felled in the deep forestlands of western and northern Maine. Urged forward by the work of brothers Abner and Philander Coburnâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whose family owned more than 400,000 acres of Maine woods and, by the mid-1800s, employed more than 800 menâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the river filled with logs destined
for use well beyond Maineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s borders. Abner Coburn would also serve as Maineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 30th governor and establish Skowheganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legacy of service as well as industry. This dedication to others was shared by his brother Stephen, who served in the United States House of Representatives in 1861, and by his niece, Louise Helen Coburn. Louise Coburn would become the second female ever to graduate from Colby College and would eventually serve as its first female trustee. Her commitment to Skowhegan would manifest in 1936, when she founded Skowhegan History House. Today, the Greek Revival historic house and museum on Elm Street continues to preserve, protect, and share documents and artifacts from the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long and vibrant history. One year after the founding of History House, Skowhegan native Margaret Chase Smith unknowingly began to make history herself, when she took a job as secretary to her husband, Congressman Clyde Smith. Margaret Chase Smith had already been involved in politics, having been elected to the Maine State Republican Committee in 1936. But Clydeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s election took them to Washington, D.C. where, four short years later, Margaret found her-
self assuming a so-called “widow’s term,” following his unexpected passing. It was a moment that would transform Margaret Chase Smith and the political landscape. She would serve four terms in the House of Representatives before winning a Senate seat in 1948. In 1964, Smith became the first woman to be nominated by a major party’s convention, when her name was put forward at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. Today, Smith’s legacy of service is presented to visitors at the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Library, which was established on Norridgewock Avenue after she left Congress. “Senator Smith lost her last election in 1972 and, actually, didn’t win Skowhegan,” says David Richards, director of the library. But, when it came time to build her library, the requirement was that it had to be built here. She was insistent that the library be built in her hometown.
of the recommendations was to identify something that you already had going on and then start identifying the other essential goods and services that go along with that thing.” Lambke’s “thing” was the history of Skowhegan’s gristmill—a building where grain is turned into flour. By continuing to build on that idea of identifying opportunities and bringing resources together, Lambke became the co-founder of the Maine Grain Alliance, a 501(c)(3) that conducts workshops and year-round classes in a revived building that’s intended to breathe new life into an old industry. “We started to wonder if we could bring back grain production in the state,” Lambke says. “My business partner and I began to visit as many mills as we could
lay eyes on. After about a year we realized, we’re really not going to find a mill to come here. We decided we would do it ourselves.” Some three years after making that decision and starting renovations, Skowhegan’s gristmill opened in September 2012 and has joined a number of businesses that mark the town as a place to watch. Sappi Fine Paper started operations in the area in 1974, and today produces 795,000 metric tons of paper at its Somerset Mill. Gifford’s Famous Ice Cream started as a Skowhegan ice cream stand in 1980. Today, it produces the World’s Best Chocolate and the World’s Best French Vanilla Ice Cream, according to judges at the World Dairy Expo. New Balance, which made its first pair
A PLACE TO WATCH History plays a very real role in Skowhegan’s present. It’s an impact that goes far beyond beautiful memorials like Coburn Park or sculptor Bernard Langlais’ 62-foot wooden Indian, the tallest such sculpture in the world. “One thing that Main Street Skowhegan undertook was a community branding initiative. The process gives the community a chance to identify itself and give a definition of what’s the best about Skowhegan,” says Jennifer Olsen, who, until recently, headed Main Street, a nonprofit dedicated to helping revitalize and attract positive attention to the town center. The three things that came from the branding process included Skowhegan’s agricultural heritage—they have the longest running state fair in the country, their waterfront, and their handwork industry. “It doesn’t matter if it’s making sneakers for New Balance or painting or farming. You’re putting your hand to something and you’re making something happen,” Olsen says. Amber Lambke is one of the people bringing Skowhegan’s past into its future. She was the force behind creating the Kneading Conference that takes place each year in Skowhegan. “I was getting involved in the efforts of Main Street Skowhegan, and I had also read the Brookings report Charting Maine’s Future. One
The view beyond downtown Skowhegan is a sight to be seen.
www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 45
a piece of maine: skowhegan of running shoes in 1938, is the only shoe manufacturer in the U.S. It employs 365 individuals in its Skowhegan-based manufacturing facility, retail outlet, and consolidation center, with 370 more working in nearby Norridgewock. “Skowhegan fits really well with New Balance’s core values and mission statement of inspiring pride in the communities where we work,” says Chris Arsenault, HR Manager for Domestic Manufacturing Operations. In addition to creating the space for employees to volunteer in places like local food cupboards and schools, New Balance—both through its associates and funding from the New Balance Foundation—created special outreach in Skowhegan. “A major focus of the New Balance Foundation is the problem of childhood obesity,” Arsenault says. Working with local schools, the Foundation developed a healthy snack- pack program, where New Balance associates pack special snack bags to be distributed to students whose families might be facing financial issues. It also includes educational resources for students and their parents to learn about healthy eating and snacks. The Foundation is also working with a partnership developed between the local hospital and the town on a program called Move More Kids. “It’s allowed for the purchase of bikes, the funding of outings, and the creation of kids’ camps,” Arsenault says. “It’s about taking volunteering and outreach to a new level. It’s about being a part of the town.” New Balance’s presence is also helping to support another New England tradition: the business-filled downtown.
MAIN STREET SKOWHEGAN “One of the things that we’ve seen here in downtown Skowhegan is this whole influx of new businesses,” Olsen says. “We’ve had 17 come into our downtown in the last year. We have locally owned and operated businesses that serve our population, so that folks can stay in town and shop. We really want to offer as much as we can but have it be something special.” An example of that something special is The Bankery. Located in a former bank building on Skowhegan’s Water Street, the from-scratch bakery retained all the bones of the 1864 structure to create an architectural presence as striking as its quirky special-occasion and wedding cakes. 46 / Bangor Metro November 2012
The Bankery bakery is located in an old bank on Main Street.
skowhegan stats Incorporated as a City: 1823 Population: 8,619 Population density: 145.5/sq mi Mil rate: 15.55 Median age: 44 Median household income: $31,429 Median home value: $113,900 Education: • Bloomfield Elementary School • North Elementary School • Margaret Chase Smith School • Skowhegan Area Middle School • Skowhegan Area High School • Skowhegan Regional Voc Center School
Largest companies: • Cedar Ridge Center/Genesis Healthcare • Giffords Ice Cream • Hight Family of Dealerships • HP Fairfield • New Balance • Redington-Fairview General Hospital • Sappi Fine Paper • Skowhegan Savings • Town of Skowhegan • Woodlawn Rehab & Nursing Center Major natural resources: • Coburn Park • Kennebec River Gorge • Lake George Regional Park • Skowhegan Riverwalk • Skowhegan Fairgrounds
There is art in abundance in Skowhegan.
“Michael Hunt and Matthew DuBois bought this old bank, and not only did they create The Bakery, they’ve converted the upstairs to living space,” Olsen says. The opportunity to purchase the building next door came up, and the guys expanded the business, opening a floral and formalwear shop. “They’re a family that I’m particularly proud of because they are showing it can be done,” Olsen says. “We can repurpose these buildings. We can live in our downtown.” A casual stroll through downtown Skowhegan reveals a number of other architectural treasures, including the former Strand Theatre, now the Strand Cinema. Built in 1929, The Strand’s façade maintains all of its charm and, depending on what corners of the Internet you visit, its interiors may even boast a ghost or two. Skowhegan’s Municipal Building was built after Coburn Hall was destroyed in a devastating fire in the early 1900s. When the Municipal Building was completed in 1909, it became a central part of com-
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a piece of maine: skowhegan munity life, from hosting teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and selectmenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meetings, to offering arts and cultural opportunities in the facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Opera House. Booker T. Washington spoke in the Opera House, as did William H. Taft.
ARTS AND LEISURE For those looking to stretch their legs and enjoy the view beyond downtownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shops, the Walking Bridge spans the river where a railroad bridge for the Somerset and Kennebec Railroad brought trains to Skowhegan (before it was destroyed in the floods of 1857). Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bridge connects downtown to the newly refurbished ADA-compliant River Walk. The half-mile-long paved route allows for a stroll through the woods of the Kennebec River Gorge, and connects more determined hikers to the Philbrick Trail. It offers canoeists and kayakers a pathway around Skowheganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dams and falls, which is just the beginning of what Skowhegan and its surrounding areas have to offer to those looking to take advantage of the summer sunshine or even shake off the winter blues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have a lot of things that happen throughout the year,â&#x20AC;? says Cory King. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Usually every four to six weeks thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some kind of community event that comes into town. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community building community.â&#x20AC;? And community has been building community for some time. The Skowhegan State Fair, started in 1818, is the longest consecutively held agriculture fair in the country. The longevity is all the more impressive when one discovers that the 1819 fair was held in January. The Madison Fairgrounds, the site of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Skowhegan State Fair, offers week-
Margaret Chase Smith Library
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The Skowhegan State fair is the longest consecutively held agricultural fair in the nation.
end horse shows and a steady stream of events and exhibitions. The Lakewood Theater, on Wesserunsett Lake, is the oldest summer theater in America. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nearby Lake George Regional Park with 320-acres of swimming, fishing, hiking, boating, and playing fields. The Summer of 2012 saw the launch of RiverFest, a massive 10-day celebration that included art walks, pub crawls, canoe races, and a Moonlight Madness street festival. There are the summer concerts at Coburn Park, the winter Holiday Stroll, and the chance to test your bravery walking the very accurately named Swinging Bridge across the south channel of the Kennebec. And then there is what might be, to some, Skowheganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most surprising feature, which is its place on the international art scene. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is a nine-week residency program that was established in 1946,â&#x20AC;? explains Sarah Workneh, co-director of
the program. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s geared toward emerging visual artists that work not just in painting and sculpture, but also video, performance, and installation. We get more than 2,000 applications every year for 65 spots.â&#x20AC;? Those applications come from all over the world. Workneh believes some 17 countries were represented on the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historic grounds during the 2012 residency. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of the artists tend to come from urban areas, so part of what makes the experience so important is the actual shift in physical landscape. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big surprise to be in Skowhegan if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re based in a city like New York, Chicago, or London,â&#x20AC;? Workneh says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But then you get used to the scale of everything. You go into the store and you know somebody. You get to know the community.â&#x20AC;? Which is, when all is said and done, the truest mark of what makes a place a picture-perfect Maine town.
2012 energy guide
Pump Up the Heat this Winter Are you dreading heating your home this winter? Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service have come up with a cost effective alternative to filling your oil tank over and over again. By Susan Faloon 50 / Bangor Metro November 2012
W
ith winter fast approaching, Bangor Hydro Electric Company and Maine Public Service are working to provide customers opportunities to manage their energy use and save money. Large turnouts at recent informational expos held in Bangor and Presque Isle showed just how eager customers are to learn about energy-saving technologies such as efficient mini-split heat pumps. “Maine is extremely dependent on fossil fuels,” says Gerry Chasse from Bangor Hydro. “In fact, Mainers use the most heating oil per capita in the U.S, with more than 75% of us using oil to heat our
homes. Fortunately, Mainers have options. Heat pumps bring tremendous benefits.” A new Heat Pump Program available this fall is offering financial incentives to residential and small commercial customers to install mini-split heat pumps. Rebates of $600 are available, as well as utility financing. It’s a limited time offer, and participation is limited. To be eligible, customers must be in good standing with the utility, and must be installing efficient mini-split heat pumps where it’s estimated that the energy savings will more than pay for the loan during the five year term.
Photos: (opposite) © ryan mcvay/thinkstock.com; (top) xxx
How does a heat pump work? Heat pump technology isn’t new, but today’s units are rated to perform much better in cold climates than their outdated counterparts. New, energy-efficient units can be a very cost-effective supplemental heat source in Maine. Like your refrigerator, heat pumps use electricity to move refrigerant and transfer heat from one space to another. Even cold air has heat in it! During the winter months, refrigerant absorbs heat from outside air for use indoors. During the summer months, heat can be moved from inside the building to outside. Both operations are done at very high levels of efficiency. While there are different types of heat pumps, the Heat Pump Pilot Program is focusing on efficient mini-split air source heat pumps. How do heat pumps compare with other heating options? Mini-split heat pumps can operate at efficiencies of up to 400%. To put it into perspective, consider that most traditional fuel oil furnaces are 75–85% efficient. Think about it this way—for every 100 gallons of oil that you burn, you get the equivalent of 75 to 80 gallons worth of usable heat. Wood pellet stoves are 50–60% efficient, which means for every ton of pellets you burn, you get about a half-ton worth of heat. “With heat pumps, for every unit of electricity you put into the heater to operate it, the heat pump is able to extract approximately two to four times the amount of heat from the environment and move it into your home,” Chasse says. “We want
WINTER HEATED AIR
70
OUTSIDE AIR
SUMMER HEATED AIR
COOLED AIR 70
our customers to heat efficiently, and that’s what heat pumps have to offer. Electricity prices are much less volatile than oil prices. Couple that with the advancements in heat pump technology and heating with electricity is economical for many households.” Heat pumps also reduce CO2 emissions, so while they are good for your wallet, they benefit the environment, too. To decide whether a heat pump is right for your home, customers are encouraged to talk with registered installers. A list of registered installers is available on the Efficiency Maine website at www.efficiencymaine.com. As with any home improvement, customers should do their homework on available options and check references. To learn more about the Heat Pump Pilot Program, go to www.bangorhydro. com/powersmartmaine and www.maine publicservice.com/powersmartmaine for more information. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 51
2012 energy guide
Bill Bell from the Maine Pellet Fuels Association:
Energy Answers With colder weather on the horizon, we wanted to take a closer look at the different energy sources we have here in Maine. In this issue, we learn more about pellet fuel, oil, and natural gas and how it affects us. We asked Bill Bell from the Maine Pellet Fuels Association, Robert Moore from Dead River, and Jonathan Kunz from Bangor Gas the same three questions about their industry. Here’s what they had to say…
Pellet heating came to Maine in the last five to six years via Europe, where, in some regions, most new homes are now centrally heated by wood pellets. Maine is similar to the forested European countries where pellet heat is the heating system of choice, and it’s only a matter of time before residents of the Pine Tree State achieve the advantages which pellet heating has brought to Austria, Southern Germany, Northern Italy, and Scandinavia. Huge advances in technology now enable pellet stoves and boilers to burn wood pellets at very high efficiency, with virtually no emissions, and a regular flow of fuel with only minimal need to attend to ash disposal. Not quite as automatic as oil heating systems, but almost. And at half the price of oil. Investment capital is now flowing into the promising Maine marketplace, both from individuals and, in a one-shot deal, from the federal American Recovery & Reinvestment Act program, which has provided Maine Forest Service with the opportunity to assist over 20 schools, colleges, and other public buildings with installing pellet heat, providing immediate large savings to these institutions. Other schools are now realizing that they can achieve huge fuel savings even without the federal incentive. Right now, the most promising change on the horizon is the growing consumer awareness of the advantages of pellet heat.
Robert Moore from Dead River: Volatility of fuel prices has led many consumers to reduce fuel consumption and look for either alternative or supplemental ways to heat their homes and businesses. To meet the growing demand for energy efficiency, conservation, and cost-savings, the industry is expanding and diversifying its customer-focused products and services. This is a positive 52 / Bangor Metro November 2012
change for both our company and our customers. Dead River Company, for example, is evolving to be more than a fuel provider. We’re an energy company focused on providing our customers energy-saving and home comfort solutions. In addition to traditional heating oil and propane services, we’re beginning to expand into ductless air conditioning with heat pump technology, plumbing, and water treatment services. In the Bangor market, we conduct energy audits, provide weatherization services, and offer affordable home security systems. Perhaps the most dramatic expansion of our service portfolio is that we now sell electricity in Maine. To support homeowners who want to take advantage of the advancements being made with electric heating, Dead River Company has expanded our equipment offerings. We now have the expertise to install ETS units, as well as ductless heat pump technology. Operating at 100% efficiency, ETS units use low-cost off-peak electricity to heat up overnight and are programmed to distribute the stored heat when needed. Or, highly efficient heat pumps can reduce your heating bill by as much as 30%–40%. Offering our customers the latest technological advancements in oil, propane, and electric heating equipment is just one way to provide them with energy-saving choices.
Natural Gas reserves are located right here in the United States. Because it is a domestic product, we can decrease our dependency on foreign oil. –Jonathan Kunz With greater emphasis on green energy, there’s been a rapid and sustained growth in demand for propane throughout our coverage area here in New England. From heating water to cooking, drying clothes, heating homes, and businesses to fueling vehicles, propane is a versatile fuel source that is predominantly
photo: © Matt Jeacock/istockphoto.com
What changes has your industry seen—both positive and negative— over the last 10 years?
Advi ce . Answers. Altern at iv es .
2012 energy guide produced in North America. In some of the markets we serve, including Bangor, natural gas is an option for homes and businesses. We have licensed technicians who install natural gas equipment, as well as provide ongoing service. As an industry leader, we support our customers by ensuring their homes and businesses are comfortable and energy-efficient, regardless of the fuel they choose. In any industry, competition is healthy. It raises consumer expectations for service and value. It’s up to us to meet those expectations.
Jonathan Kunz from Bangor Gas: People have become more aware of the benefits associated with using natural gas, not only for heating, but cooking, drying clothes, heating water, and producing electricity with mini turbines. This is in part to an increased national attention to the fact that natural gas reserves are located right here in the
54 /bangor_gas1211.indd Bangor Metro November 2012 1
United States. Because it is a domestic product, we can decrease our dependency on foreign oil. There are new and improved methods of extracting natural gas. Additional storage facilities and new pipelines have lowered the product cost and increased the availability to new areas. More people than ever have access to this cheaper, cleaner, domestic and abundant energy source. The only downside in Maine is the length of our construction season and ground conditions. These two things directly affect the time and cost of extending the distribution system into new areas.
What are the pros and cons to using what your industry produces to power, heat, and cool homes in Maine? Bill Bell from the Maine Pellet Fuels Association: The advantages of pellet heat are both
simple and strong. Wood pellets generate the same heat as oil at $2 per gallon—major savings. Maine dollars spent on Maine wood pellets stay right here in Maine, providing jobs in the Maine woods, in Maine’s four pellet manufacturing plants, and circulating round and round in the Maine economy. The hurdle for homeowners considering installation of a central pellet heating system has been the initial system cost. However, financial lenders are now realizing that the homeowner’s savings on fuel far exceed the monthly payments on a heating system loan, and homeowner financing is becoming more readily available.
Robert Moore from Dead River: Due to our established storage and distribution infrastructure, the oil and propane industry is designed to meet the unique needs of users who have “peak energy” needs. Specifically, these products can be stored for later use, unlike some other energy sources. As Mainers, we certainly experience such “peak energy” needs dur-
10/12/12 12:16:08 PM
2012 energy guide
Propane Space Heating Instant, Consistent, and Even
W
ith the cold mornings recently, have you found the need to adjust your thermostat, turning on your central heating system? Did you have to heat the whole house just to take the chill off? If you are like many of our customers who are searching for ways to save energy and reduce their heating bills, you might want to consider propane-fueled room space heaters as an economical approach to heating your home.
Space heating is often considered a complementary heat source that can be used in conjunction to central heating to bring warmth when and where you need it without having to heat your entire home. The primary benefit of space heating is that it can provide additional focused heat to just the room or area you are in. Space heating might also be used to bring supplemental heat to unused rooms with just enough warmth to keep them above freezing. Space heaters come in almost any size and are also an excellent option for heating bonus rooms, in-law suites, and basements. They provide you with the benefit of ensuring that extra heat can be where and when you want it, without the need of heating the entire house. Space heating saves energy, and therefore, can also save you money, which is an important part of an energy efficient home. Space heaters convert energy fuels such as propane, oil or electricity into heat. Space heaters are classified as vented and unvented or “vent-free.” Unvented combustion units are not
recommended for use inside your home, because they introduce unwanted combustion products into the living space. If you elect to purchase a space heater be sure to look for sealed combustion or “100% outdoor air” units, which have a duct to bring outside air into the combustion chamber. If space heating is an option for you, you may want to consider propane as the fuel source. Besides the point that propane-fueled space heaters can be 90 percent efficient or more, propane is one of the nation’s most versatile sources of energy. Nearly 20 billion gallons of propane are consumed annually in the U.S. with more than 14 million families using it every day in their homes, for vehicles, and even for recreation. People trust and rely on propane for heating and cooling their homes, among other uses. This exceptional fuel burns cleanly and is environmentally friendly. Propane is one of the lightest, simplest hydrocarbons in existence, and as a result, is one of the cleanest burning of all alternative fuels. If you are looking for a practical, economical, and safe alternative to heating your entire home, propane space heat may be a great option for you, providing instant, consistent, and even heat that you can enjoy comfortably anywhere in your home, while gaining the benefits of saved energy and reduced heating costs, a solution many of us need and appreciate. Bob Foster is President of R. H. Foster Energy www.RHFoster.com
More than you’d expect from your energy company. 56 / Bangor Metro November 2012
ing the winter. Whether it’s a frigid winter or one plagued by an ice storm, we have a proven record of meeting all the challenges these months can deliver. I think the most obvious “con” related to the oil industry is price volatility. There are so many reasons (including international events) that cause this volatility—all beyond the control of the local supplier. As a result, our industry is often targeted by those who don’t fully understand it. The reality is that home heating is a basic necessity of life in a cold-weather state like Maine. If you took the petroleum industry out of the energy mix, a
If you took the petroleum industry out of the energy mix, a lot of people would be left out in the cold. —Robert Moore lot of people would be left out in the cold. We should be looking at a diverse energy portfolio that uses every arrow in the quiver—oil, propane, electricity, natural gas, solar and wind. We need them all.
Jonathan Kunz from Bangor Gas: There are a number of positive reasons for switching to natural gas from other energy sources. The biggest positive being the decrease of Maine’s dependency on foreign oil. Natural gas is a safe and affordable fuel for heating and cooling our homes, cooking our food, drying our clothes, and heating our water. It has many uses for businesses, manufacturing, and power generation and represents the fastest and most cost-effective way to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Consider the fact that natural gas emissions are the lowest of any fossil fuel. The combustion of natural gas emits almost 30% less carbon dioxide than oil, and almost 45% less than coal. The development of this safe, abundant, and environmentally responsible energy source in Maine will do more than create jobs—it will improve our living standards and drive economic growth.
There is over 100 years’ worth of supply of natural gas in our country today. These reserves have created a stable market with very little price fluctuation. This has contributed to the ability of Maine businesses to compete on a global market, not to mention the ability of homeowners to pay their heating bill. The only negatives I can think of is the time and effort it takes to introduce natural gas into new areas.
What sorts of new and exciting things are on the horizon for your industry here in Maine? Bill Bell from the Maine Pellet Fuels Association: Looking ahead, our industry sees a rapid expansion of “clusters” of homeowners switching to pellet heat, as the example of one very enthusiastic homeowner passes on to a set of neighbors. This has already happened in a pilot project we initiated in Berlin, New Hampshire. The homeowner’s best friend will continue to be their former oil dealer, now their “energy marketer,” who has added pellet equipment and deliveries to the firm’s product line. It will all be good.
Robert Moore from Dead River: We’re constantly embracing new technologies that improve efficiency and reduce overall energy costs. That diversification is exciting in that it allows the industry to grow, while allowing our customers to have choices and save in ways we never expected. The ETS and ductless heat pump technology I mentioned earlier are prime examples. Dead River Company has widened its service portfolio, while at the same time offering our customers a viable choice in how they heat, cool and care for their homes.
Jonathan Kunz from Bangor Gas: Compressed Natural Gas, with assistance from the City of Bangor, will soon be available to fill passenger cars and trucks, fleet vehicles, and transports locally. Bangor Gas Company will have a fast-fill compressor and two tube-type transport trucks built and ready for delivery. Bangor is positioned to be the center of the state’s first public compressed natural gas filling station.
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2012 energy guide
t s li o d y e n o H It’s that time of year once again, to get ready for winter. Here is your list of things to do this month to help you get started.
Use clear plastic sheets to insulate windows through the cold season. On the interior, replace your regular curtains with insulated or thermal ones. Keep the shades up during the day to let the sun in and close them at night to keep the cold out.
Clean your boiler
A good cleaning extends the life of your heating system while ensuring that it’s operating safely. It’s recommended that a professional clean and service your boiler or furnace to maximize its efficiency.
Leaf your house
Insulate more, not less
By making sure your house is properly insulated, you will reduce your energy use and your utility costs. Walls, floors, heating ducts, and attic and basement access are some insulation hot spot suggestions.
Clothing swap
As October rears her head and the nights start getting longer, it’s time to swap your summer clothes for your winter wear. It’s also a good idea to do the same with your bedding. Get yourself some cozy flannel sheets and put
Instead of sending your raked fall leaves to the landfill,
an extra blanket on the bed before plugging in your space
bag them, dry them, and line the perimeter of your house
heater and electric blanket.
with the bags for added insulation.
Redecorate
Hang a clothesline
Your clothes dryer is one of the most expensive appli-
Make sure couches and curtains aren’t covering your
ances to run. Hang a clothesline in your basement or set
heating vents. You could be losing some of the heat
up a drying rack to help cut your electric bill this fall.
flowing through your home.
Install motion sensor lights
Install motion sensors that turn lights on when you walk in an area or room and off when motion is no longer
detected—especially in high-traffic areas like a garage or a stairway.
Up the chimney
Low-Flow
Take short showers instead of baths, and install low-flow shower heads for additional savings.
Seal Air Leaks
Use sheet metal or sheetrock, as well as furnace cement caulk, to seal air leaks around your fireplace chimney, furnace, and water heater vents. Use foam sealant
Have your chimney cleaned and checked each year for
around windows, baseboards, and other places were air
safety and efficiency.
may leak from.
58 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Photo: jupiter images/thinkstock.com
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metro sports: community programs more info Looking to join a ski club in your area? Try one of these: 10th Mountain Ski Club Fort Kent
Membership Individuals: $25 www.10thmtnskiclub.org Four Seasons Ski Club Madawaska
Youth skiing is a growing sport for school-age children in our area. Whether your kid is already a pro or has never strapped on a pair of boots, there are many ways for children to get involved once the snow flies. By Melanie Brooks
I
f you are looking to get your kids on skis this winter, you have plenty of options. From Nordic to alpine skiing, kids of all ages can take advantage of what the Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) has to offer. While some high schools in the Bangor area have Nordic ski teams (Hampden Academy, John Bapst, and Orono High School), the majority of public school teams hail from the north. High school students who don’t have a ski team at their school or who are looking for more development have the opportunity to participate in the MWSC junior and development programs, which are designed to complement public school ski programs. “School-based ski teams are often limited in the amount of time coaches can spend working with athletes in the offseason,” says Lauren Jacobs, a Healthy Hometowns coach for the MWSC. “The MWSC programs provide support for athletes that would like to go further and make skiing their number one sport.” These athletes compete throughout New England and are expected to train 400 to 700 hours a year, all year round. “We have dry land sessions all year long,” says Fred 60 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Bailey, a cross-country racer and coach for the MWSC. “We get on the snow as soon as we can, which is usually at Big Rock in Mars Hill, where they make snow during the Thanksgiving holiday.” Younger kids can benefit from MWSC programs, too. Ski clubs throughout our area—the Penobscot Valley Ski Club in Bangor, 10th Mountain Ski Club in Fort Kent, and Northern Skiers in Caribou, to name a few—as well as area recreation departments work to get kids outdoors in the winter. “The programs support beginners as well as kids who would like to try out racing,” Jacobs says. “We are planning a new youth ski program at the Bangor Recreation Department right now.” Another outlet for youth skiing is the Healthy Hometowns program through the MWSC. It’s the community development division of the nonprofit organization and is internationally recognized as one of the top youth development programs in the world. Locally, Winterport and Hampden host the Healthy Hometowns ski trailer, which is packed with ski equipment, for two weeks in the winter, allowing all school-aged children the opportunity to try skiing free of charge.
Nordic Heritage Ski Club Presque Isle
Membership Individual: $15 Family: $30 www.nordicheritagecenter.org Northern Skiers Club Caribou
Membership Individual: $15 Family: $25 Corporate: $50 www.northernskiers.org Penobscot Valley Ski Club Bangor Area
Membership Individual: $25 Family: $35 www.pvskiclub.org Pinnacle Ski Club Pittsfield
Membership Individual: $30 Couples: $50 Family: $75 Students: $20 www.pinnacleskiclub.word press.com
photo: courtesy of maine winter sports center
Kids on Skis
Membership Family/Individual: $40 www.fourseasonstrail.org
metro sports: college
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YOU SEE SO MANY QUIRK STICKERS? Come see for yourself.
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Water Polo, COA style The water polo team at the College of the Atlantic won’t be playing in any NCAA tournaments—and that’s just the way they like it. By Sarah Baker and Donna Gold
Photo: Julia walker thomas
S
et on the shores of Frenchman Bay with Acadia National Park in the distance, College of the Atlantic offers a wealth of sports to choose from, even without official teams—hiking, kayaking, biking, crosscountry skiing, frisbee, cricket, skating, and even water polo. The water polo tradition at COA started offshore—way offshore. On the Caribbean island of Tobago, to be exact. Ken Cline, the David Rockefeller Family Chair in Ecosystem Management and Protection, and biology faculty members Helen Hess and Chris Petersen were teaching a class focused on tropical marine biology and conservation. Students and faculty stayed in a rental house, which offered the group the grand luxury of a pool where they would play no-rules water polo. When they returned to Maine, Hess and Petersen gave Cline a water polo ball as a present. “I got some of the Tobago students and high school kids from town together to play at the YMCA,” Cline says. Water polo wasn’t new to COA at the time, but students played inner-tube water polo, a very humbling and equalizing way to play the game, Cline says. “No one is really very coordinated in an inner tube.” After Tobago, tubes were out. Even
so, NCAA officials might not recognize the state of play at these twice-weekly games. “Very few players have any real water polo experience,” Cline says. “Some played pick-up games with their high school swim teams. Some can barely swim and use the ball for flotation—it is a great defensive move to scream, ‘Don’t take the ball–I’ll drown!’ Occasionally we have people who played on high school or college teams. We have to help them forget all of the real rules.” Seven years after the trip to Tobago, members of the MDI community still join faculty, students, and sometimes staff each Tuesday and Thursday night at the Mount Desert Island Y pool when school is in session. “Numbers vary over the course of the term,” Cline says. “There are lots of bodies in the beginning, but after multiple leg cramps and school work picks up, we usually end up with a core group. Sometimes we’ll get another revival during the last week of the term. It is a way for people to get out their frustrations, with the added benefit that there are faculty members in the pool that they can drown as surrogates for the faculty that are causing them stress.” P.S. Community members are welcome to join.
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food file
Sarah Smiley with her boys Lindell, Owen, and Ford and Sparky, the family dog. 62 / Bangor Metro November 2012
A Slice of the Smileys
Photos: ©andrea Hand photography
As a military wife with three young boys, Sarah Smiley found a way to fill her husband’s chair at the dinner table while he was deployed overseas. By Joy Hollowell
“I
always think, if all the houses on my street were like a doll house, with one side taken off, you would see a lot of people right next door to each other, eating alone,” says Sarah Smiley. The Bangor Daily News columnist and mother of three admits that it’s not something she gave much thought to, until her husband Dustin was deployed with the Navy overseas on November 21, 2011. “We try to eat together as a family a couple of times a week,” Smiley explains, glancing over at her boys, 12-year-old Ford, 10-year-old Owen, and 5-year-old Lindell. “I knew from Dustin’s past deployments that dinner time was the loneliest.” Before Dustin left, the two had discussed ways to make the time go by faster. They came up with an idea to invite people from the community over for dinner. “Dustin thought it would be a really neat
experience for the boys,” says Smiley. The invites were sent out through social media, and it wasn’t long before the Smileys had their first guest. “I came home one day and I had a phone call from Senator Susan Collins’ assistant,” Smiley says. “She was accepting Ford’s invitation to come to dinner.” The former Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee spent several hours visiting with the Smileys on January 3, 2012. She even brought brownies. “Lindell loved Senator Collins,” Smiley gushes. “He crawled right up into her lap.” She adds that the longtime lawmaker even offered to do the dishes. “I almost took her up on it,” Smiley says with a grin. Finding a guest to follow the Senator’s lead turned out to be easier than Smiley thought. “Lindell’s birthday was coming up,” she says. “He told me he wanted www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 63
food file to invite his preschool teacher to dinner.” The guest list for Dinner With the Smileys, as the family calls it, is as eclectic as it comes. It includes the Smileys’ minister, the mayor of Bangor, radio personalities Mike and Mike, Congressman Mike Michaud, and R2D2 (along with his “handler” Paul Bussiere). Fifty-two guests, one for each week that Dustin is gone. Smiley began blogging about each experience and invited a friend to take photos. The Dinner With the Smileys Facebook page has over 6,000 followers. As the Smiley family project got to be more well-known, the family got busier, and scheduling dinner guests became a bit tricky, specifically for the Smiley’s nextdoor neighbor. “She left for the nursing home soon after Dustin deployed,” explains Smiley. “I kept telling her, ‘Let’s do a dinner, we’ll come visit you.’ Well, I kept putting it off. Then, we finally set a date for April, and I called the nursing home to confirm. I found out that she had passed away the week before.” She pauses for a moment. “There are so many people in our lives that we say, “let’s do dinner, let’s get together,” and you just don’t. That was a lesson for me not to put things off.” Tonight, Smiley is making pizza for the Joy Hollowell edition of Dinner With the Smileys.
As Smiley grabs packages of pizza dough out of the refrigerator, she reminisces with Ford about the last couple of times she made pizza for her guests. “My favorite time you made pizza was when we had Donn Fendler over, so can you mimic exactly what you made then?” asks Ford. “He did really like it, didn’t he,” replies Sarah, revealing the the author of Lost On A Mountain in Maine ate three slices. “Oh, and I didn’t like the pizza we had with Matt Stairs,” adds Ford, a big fan of the former Major League baseball player. Smiley stretches the whole wheat dough out onto two pizza trays. “The nice thing about pizza is that you can pretty much get everything prepared ahead of time,” she says, picking up a jar of pizza sauce. “Lindell, would you get me a big spoon out of the drawer?” After sprinkling packaged shredded cheese, Smiley pulls a smorgasbord of toppings out of the refrigerator. The first pizza will be half grilled chicken and onion, half vegetarian. She fills the second pie with pineapple and ham on one side, sliced pepperoni on the other. Smiley also leaves some space for the just-cheese lovers. She’s already pre-heated the oven to 425 degrees. After 20 minutes of cooking, Smiley
recipe Sarah Smiley’s Semi-Homemade Pizza 1 package Portland Pie Co. pizza dough (you can find several different varieties at Hannaford). 1 14 oz. jar Ragu pizza sauce 1 8 oz. package of shredded Pizza Mix cheese Topping suggestions: Chopped grilled chicken, chopped vegetables, chunks of pineapple, slices of ham, pepperoni, chopped sausage, cooked ground beef Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stretch pizza dough out onto pan—you can use a metal tray or pizza stone, whatever you prefer. Spread pizza sauce on top of dough, stopping just about an inch short of the edge to allow for the crust to rise (you’ll only use about �/� of the jar). Sprinkle cheese on top (your preference as to how much cheese you like on your pizza). Add toppings of choice. Bake pizza for about 20 to 25 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and crust starts to brown. Let pizza rest for about 5 minutes before slicing to serve. 64 / Bangor Metro November 2012
opens the oven and tests the dough with her fingers. “Well guys,” she says, pulling the two trays out, “I think these are done.” She sets the pizzas down in the middle of the table, and takes orders for slices. For the next few minutes, the Smiley house is quiet except for the sound of forks plinking on plates. Suddenly there’s a groan. “Ohhh, this dough doesn’t taste like it’s cooked all the way,” says Smiley, making a face. “I’m not going to eat mine,” announces Lindell, pushing his plate away. “Certainly, nobody has come to our house for the food,” Smiley says with a slight grin. “You just ate my pizza, and it’s not world-class pizza. Sometimes the dinner is good, sometimes it’s not,” she adds, “What I’ve learned is that people are coming over to have conversation and to not be alone. It’s not about the food. I don’t think anybody has left here, that I know of, and said, ‘I wish I hadn’t come to dinner because the pizza was cold or she had paper towels for napkins.’” On December 7, the Smiley family will host their final dinner guest. In honor of the last meal, the foursome has invited all of their past guests to come back. As for who is worthy enough to be the final guest of honor, “Oh, that’s easy,” answers Ford, breaking into an ear-to-ear grin, “my Dad.”
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This is Maine, the official winter guide for Eastern, Midcoast, Central, and Northern Maine is coming in January! This comprehensive calendar will feature events from January 1st through April 1st. Featuring ski areas throughout Maine, ice fishing derbies, and much more!
Help us help you! Send your winter event information to editor@bangormetro.com
www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 65
Side Street Cafe Native Alabamian Chris Hearn ended up in Maine in a most unusual way—he drove up the coastline from Key West with his dog, stopping to take a dip in the ocean every 100 miles along the way. Once he caught sight of Vacationland, he knew it was where he belonged. These days, you can find him in the kitchen of Bar Harbor’s Side Street Cafe. By melanie Brooks
66 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Where are you from and how did you end up in Maine? I am from Auburn, Alabama. I was working corporately in Birmingham and took a career break in 2002. I started out camping in Key West and came up with the idea of traveling our entire eastern coastline with my dog. On seeing Maine, I knew it would be my new home, so I returned to the South to gather my belongings and started working that summer on Mount Desert Island. I have traveled a few winters and left the state for a year, but this is my home. My wife is from here, and our baby is a Mainer! I own a chainsaw, and I am looking for a t-shirt that states, “I wasn’t born here,
Photos: donna just photography
kitchen confidential
Vision: A Better Bangor
but I got here as fast as I could.” This is my home, and I am very thankful for that.
We must:
What is your first food memory? My first food memory is cooking fish fresh out of the pond and drinking milk from cows in the back field. I was raised knowing where my food came from, and my family even grow lots of it ourselves. We are trying to get back to that these days, and I hope to raise my daughter with the same ideals of what sustains us.
t Enhance public safety t Improve our sidewalks and streets t Promote a healthy economy t Keep property taxes under control
B
orn and brought up in Bangor, it’s been my family’s tradition to serve Bangor for over 100 years. I’m here to listen and represent you and I have the courage to make the tough decisions! You have counted on me in the past and you know I’ll do what is right for Bangor.
Please visit www.nealleyforcouncil.com
David S. Nealley Opposite page: Chef Chris Hearn outside of the Bar Harbor restaurant. Above: Cajun rubbed and grilled prime strip loin topped with curried coconut cream and lobster sauce.
Authorized & Paid for by Nealley For City Council, Glenn Goodwin, Treasurer, P.O. Box 1646, Bangor, ME 04402
What are some of your early cooking experiences? Early cooking experiences came from home and then from small Mom and Pop restaurants in the South. I learned to layer flavors and to keep it as simple as possible. Any family influences on your style and taste? Influences from both sides of my family were strong, as we always gathered in large groups. You just can’t beat a Southern family buffet, whether it be at Thanksgiving or just a simple weekend get together! Where did you study/apprentice? I studied Engineering and Building Science in college, but I always came back to working with food, so I eventually just dove in. Most of my training has been through apprenticing under really strong cooks. I spent 20 years in the corporate end of restaurants, which firmed up many parts of my knowledge. I have spent my entire professional life working with people from around the world, who are generally happy and have one common goal—to make good food. When did you realize you were a chef? I have never “realized” I am a chef. I con-
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dining guide Hancock County The Bangkok Restaurant Enjoy a wonderful oriental restaurant with great service. You can order your food however you like and we will try to accommodate you. Sushi open ThursdaySunday from 4:00pm-9:00 pm 78 Downeast Highway, Ellsworth 207-667-1324 • Find us on Facebook Cleonice Mediterranean Bistro We source local ingredients, blend them with flavors from around the Mediterranean to produce spectacular meals: Lunch, Dinner and Tapas. 112 Main St., Ellsworth 207-664-7554 • www.cleonice.com The Crocker House Country Inn Simple, elegant fare in a comfortable setting. Gardenfresh vegetables, breads and desserts made daily. Extensive wine and imported beer list, fully stocked bar. Dinner served daily May 1 to Oct. 31. Reservations are requested. 967 Point Road, Hancock Point 207-422-6806 • www.crockerhouse.com Governor’s Restaurant & Bakery Governor’s is known for its fresh Maine seafood dishes such as the Haddock Fry, Fisherman’s Platter, and Fried Maine Clams, along with home-style classics like meatloaf, roast turkey and trimmings, and homemade desserts, pies, and cakes. 253 High Street, Ellsworth 207-610-1880 • www.governorsrestaurant.com The Lucerne Inn Travelers have been coming to the Lucerne Inn overlooking Phillips Lake for almost 200 years. Make dining out an event with a four-course meal in a dining room with a view from every window. 2517 Main Rd., Dedham 207-843-5123 • www.lucerneinn.com Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound For over 50 years, Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound has been providing you with the very best and freshest seafood Maine offers. Trenton Bridge ships fresh Maine lobsters, scallops, crabmeat, clams and mussels right to your door, or in summer season, serves them to you in Downeast Maine! 1237 Bar Harbor Road, Trenton 207-667-2977 • www.trentonbridgelobster.com
68 / Bangor Metro November 2012
kitchen confidential Penobscot The Coach House Affordable & delicious homestyle cooking served in a casual & friendly atmosphere. We serve breakfast, lunch & dinner 7 days a week. Eat in or call for take-out. 457 Wilson St., Brewer 207-989-4101 Dysarts Restaurant Home cooking tastes best when you don’t have to cook it! Serving Maine recipes that capture the authentic flavor of our region. I -95 exit 180 (530 Coldbrook Rd.), Bangor 207-942-4878 • www.dysarts.com Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant Miguel’s serves great, affordable, authentic, Tex-Mex cuisine made with local produce, beef, and seafood when available. Miguel’s prides itself on great customer service in a fun family-friendly atmosphere. 697 Hogan Rd., Bangor 207-942-3002 • www.miguelsbangor.com Moe’s Original Bar B Que Moe’s Original Bar B Que serves up an award-winning, all things Southern, Alabama BBQ experience. Haul it Home Packs & catering for special events. 650 Broadway, Bangor 207-992-9000 • www.moesoriginalbbq.com Schooners Seafood & Steakhouse Enjoy dinner on our beautiful deck overlooking the Penobscot River, or enjoy our delicious cuisine that will tempt your taste buds on a romantic rendezvous for two or in an enticing environment for the whole family. 5 South Main St., Brewer 207-989-5389 • www.schoonersbrewer.com Thistles
Owned and operated by The Rave family, Thistles provides one of the best dining experiences in Bangor. At Thistles you will be introduced to a superb menu of cuisine that is truly global. 175 Exchange Street, Bangor 207-945-5480 • www.thistlesrestaurant.com
sider myself to be a cook. I get to work with a great group of people, and we collaborate. Side Street Café is a place for everyone’s opinion and hard work. One day the bartenders may ask us to help create a rhubarb syrup for a Strawberry Rhubarb Margarita. Our baker (who is also my lovely wife) takes requests from the service staff and creates desserts that they are proud and excited to serve. We all have fun with it! Jena and Jeff are the owners, and they allow everyone to help in decisions. What do you love about your location? What I love about the location of Side Street Cafe is that we are not on the main streets, and people have to find us. It seems like they enjoy feeling the discovery of an off-the-beaten-path place. What is your favorite ingredient to work with? My favorite ingredients to work with would be my coworkers. Simple, straightforward foods made by people who care always taste better. I’m fortunate to have a great staff, and we allow and encourage each other to experiment and play with ideas. That is what makes the food great here at Side Street Café. What is the dish we will be featuring? How did it come about and what ingredients are used? The dish is a Cajun rubbed and grilled prime strip loin topped with our curried coconut cream and lobster sauce. It was inspired by talking with Alethea and Keith, two members of our kitchen staff, about how they would season lobster back home in Jamaica. Your favorite restaurant (besides your own...)? My favorite restaurant is Dreamland in Birmingham, Alabama. It started from serving ribs in a parking lot during college football games in Tuscaloosa. You paid the man to park in his yard and could buy ribs from him before the game. Now they have two places and a full menu, but still it’s the place to go for BBQ Ribs when I am down home. The last time you really surprised yourself in the kitchen? The last time I really surprised myself in the kitchen was yesterday. I believe res-
taurant kitchens to be an ever-changing live environment, so honestly everyday is filled with surprises and challenges...if you push to always grow and improve. What does a perfect day off look like? A perfect day off would be taking a picture of a deer in the early morning and getting back home for breakfast with my wife Alisa and our daughter Rose. Then maybe canoeing or a walk in the woods. I’d finish the day grilling out on my fire pit with beers and s’mores. What would you want your last meal to be? My last meal would be something simple. My Mom’s spaghetti or my wife’s taquitos and, of course, any of her desserts. Some wine or beer and maybe just a few friends around. What do you love most about your job? I most love the simplicity and wholeness of food. You work hard with it, and it pays dividends. If sadness is around, people bring food to help. Someone is sick, you take them chicken noodle soup. If a celebration is in order, food is generally involved. Holidays...food. Weddings...food. Parties...yes, FOOD! I enjoy watching our efforts being appreciated. Cooking keeps me humble and happy.
more info side street Cafe 49 Rodick Street, bar harbor 207.801.2591 Hours: 11 am– 9 pm daily Specialties: Char-grilled �/�-pound burgers, homemade lobster stew, super fresh lobster rolls, and fresh creative margaritas. Accolades: Voted “The Best On Mount Desert Island” for our Margaritas, Burgers, Lobster Rolls and Mac and Cheese in the Bar Harbor Times People’s Choice Awards. Voted Best Cocktails in Bangor Metro magazine. First-timer tip: Happy Hour is 4– 6 pm, with $10 pitchers of gimlets and margaritas
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per spectives
Keren Zucker
70 / Bangor Metro November 2012
Keren Zucker is relatively new to photography. She earned her bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in interdisciplinary fine arts from the University of Maine at Machias, where she invested a lot of time working on her craft. For the past eight years, her main subjects have revolved around the natural world. More recently she has been focusing on abandoned houses. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What intrigues me the most is knowing that these structures, most of which will never be restored, were once a place that someone called home,â&#x20AC;? Zucker says.
www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 71
maine woods & waters
T
A Below Average Buck The measure of success is often found in the size of the hunt, not the size of the deer. illustration and essay by Brad Eden
he antlers on this stocky young buck had the rusty stain of discarded velvet at the knobby bases, and were wide and creamcolored; just a five-point, he missed the merit of a six-point by a smidgen on one short tine. Given a couple years, he would have been a good eight- or 10-point. He had a distinct ebony brisket running from lower chest to mid belly, and the top of his tail was almost completely black; more like a northwest black-tail deer than a northeast whitetail. Maybe 165 pounds on the hoof, he would end up dressing out at around 140 pounds. It was November 15, 1997. Half of the deer season was over, and I was tired of rising before the rooster crows and trudging to a tree stand. That morning I waited until the woods awoke before heading out the back door in hopes of cutting a decent deer track in the eight inches of snow that had fallen overnight. I hunted slowly up the hill behind the house, through stands of hemlock and pine, weaving under and around the conifers, knocking snow off the branches and down my neck. I located some tracks that meandered through an old woodcutting filled with blowdowns and slash. Not long after I took up the trail, boot prints joined me alongside the tracks I was following. Another intrepid hunter had gotten the jump on me, so I abandoned that track and moved toward a hardwood ridge in hopes of finding some undisturbed sign. It was 8:30 a.m. when I headed down the south-facing ridgeline. The morning sun was blinding, as it illuminated the surrounding snow-blanketed woods, and I could hear the muffled sound of melting snow dropping off the trees. I hunted halfway down the ridge, hooked east ,and started working parallel to the hill. It was quiet and still; the breeze was in my face—perfect for still hunting and track-
That morning I waited until the woods awoke before heading out the back door in hopes of cutting a decent deer track in the eight inches of snow that had fallen overnight. ing through the open hardwoods. I soon cut a set of fresh tracks. Judging by the size and drag marks, it looked like a buck and a doe. They were heading to a 72 / Bangor Metro November 2012
distant stand of hemlock and spruce, just above a flooded cedar swamp. After over an hour of sneaking alongside the pokes in the snow, I noticed the deer would occasionally stop and step off their trail. I could picture them nervously stamping their feet, ears pivoting, watching their back trail. They were close. I decided to stop and wait to see if the buck would circle around to find out what was dogging him and his companion. It was 10:30 a.m. when I ducked under some low branches, brushed the snow off the stump underneath, and sat down. I scanned the hillside below me, and could make out a familiar skidder road. When I glanced to my left, there was the buck. He was swaggering up the slope, nose in the air, testing the wind. Normally, a deer is almost invisible in the woods, but the contrast between the buck and the powder-white snow is still etched in my mind. I noted the cream-colored rack as he bobbed his head, and the unusually dark chest. I raised my rifle, sliding off the safety in the same motion. Truth is, places are becoming fewer and farther between where you can walk out your back door and track a buck for miles in new-fallen snow without ending up in someone’s backyard or stopped short by “No Hunting” signs. I’m acutely aware of how privileged I am to still have these opportunities in Maine and how quickly that is disappearing. This wasn’t a bragging-size deer by any means, and I’ve shot much bigger since, but it was special; it was tracked and outwitted, not chanced upon or ambushed from a tree stand. When someone looks at the European skull mount I have on display, they’ll see a below-average buck, but when I look at it, I’ll feel the cold snow dribbling down my back; I’ll see the southern slope illuminated by the morning sun; I’ll hear the sound of snow dropping softly off branches. I unloaded my rifle, knelt down, and put my hand on his side, feeling the warmth in his brittle gray winter coat. I field dressed him slowly and carefully, keeping the heart and liver, then grabbed an antler and started the long slow haul, uphill, over the snow, towards home. Brad Eden is an artist, writer, Registered Maine Master Guide, and owner/editor of the online magazine www.uplandjournal.com
savvy seniors
Hunger Strikes Many senior citizens in Maine go hungry every day. But there are programs out there to help them discreetly buy the food they so desperately need. by Jessica L. Maurer, Esq.
Photo: ©hemera/thinkstock.com
T
imes are tough for Maine seniors. Many are on low, fixed incomes and must make difficult decisions every day about stretching their limited dollars to meet basic needs. Far too many must choose between paying for food, heat, medication, and health care. Going without needed medication or cutting back on adequate nutrition can have a terrible impact on the health of seniors. Studies have shown a direct link between poor nutrition or lack of food and common health issues such as obesity, diabetes, low blood pressure, and heart failure. Maine has the highest rate of very low food security in New England, and the seventh highest rate in the United States. The increase in senior hunger is particularly alarming. Nearly one out of every eight Maine seniors is suffering from hunger or under threat of it—a 38%
increase from 2001. Sadly, a program that can help many seniors pay for food, the Food Supplement Program, also known as food stamps or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is severely underutilized by seniors. Only one third of Maine seniors who are eligible for the Food Supplement Program are receiving benefits, the lowest rate among all demographic groups. Seniors are less likely to know that they might qualify, are confused by the application process, hold misconceptions about the benefit, and don’t know how to use food stamps. They are concerned about the stigma and don’t know that the benefits are used discreetly with a debit card that looks just like any other credit card. To get the word out to seniors about the Food Supplement Program, the Maine Hunger Initiative, made up of AARP, the Maine Association of Area Agencies on
Aging, Preble Street, Maine Equal Justice Partners, Maine Center for Economic Policy, and Maine Council of Churches, is taking action. The first step was to send a targeted mailing to low-income older Mainers to let them know about the benefit and to encourage them to call their local Area Agency on Aging (AAA) for eligibility screening. The response was overwhelming, and underscored the scope of the problem. For days, AAA phones rang off the hook, and staff fielded thousands of calls. Some, who found out they would receive $66 a month from the Food Supplement Program to pay for food, cried with relief. The second phase of the outreach plan will have a more lasting impact. The Maine Hunger Initiative has teamed up with Maine’s health care professionals to launch the Senior Food Supplement Prescription Program. As part of this Program, we’re mailing thousands of specially designed prescription pads and promotional materials to primary care practices, with a special focus on Patient Centered Medical Home practices. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 73
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Dirigo Pines Retirement Community in Orono offers exceptional variety for a vibrant and fulfilling lifestyle. Cottage Living Independent Living Apartments Assisted Living Apartments Memory Loss Suites Call for a tour today! 207-866-3400 • 9 Alumni Drive Orono, Maine www.DirigoPines.com
74 / Bangor Metro November 2012
savvy seniors The materials encourage primary care professionals to screen elder patients for malnutrition and to write a prescription that directs the elder to apply for Food Supplement benefits. Health care practitioners are one of the most trusted sources for seniors. Seniors listen to and follow their advice. Health care practitioners know their patients better than anyone else, and are best equipped to see hidden socioeconomic issues facing patients. Elder patients are more likely to take action if their health care provider suggests they should to ensure better health. The prescription pad directs seniors to call the local AAA to be screened for eligibility. If seniors are seemingly eligible, a staff person will help them apply for the benefit, if necessary, or point them in the right direction to have the form completed. The AAAs are not the deciding factor on this benefit and can only help with the applications. The senior will also be made aware of ways to access other food resources like Meals on Wheels, the USDA Commodity Supplement Food Program, and congregate dining. Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine.” Health care professionals know nutrition matters, but they don’t know the extent to which Maine seniors are suffering from hunger. Our health care partners in the Senior Food Supplement Prescription Program, including the Maine Medical Association, Maine Primary Care Association, Maine Quality Counts, Maine Nurse Practitioner Association, and the Maine Osteopathic Association, are going to help change this. These partners will be distributing information about the program to thousands of health care professionals to educate them about senior hunger. These efforts will reduce the number of older Mainers who struggle with hunger and lead to improved health of older Mainers. You can make a difference too! Friends are another trusted source for seniors. If you know a senior who is struggling to meet basic needs, suggest they call 1-877353-3771 to get a benefits check-up. Tell them today—it could make a significant difference. Jessica L. Maurer, Esq., is the executive director of the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging and a licensed Maine attorney,
Support at any point in your life • Skilled nursing, personal support and companionship services for the aging and disabled • Serving people with combined medical and mental health needs • Case management and in-home behavioral support services for children and adults • Teaching and role modeling the tasks of daily living at home and in the community for children and adults with intellectual disabilities • Providing psychiatric medication management and outpatient therapy to adults and children in 3 locations across Maine.
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www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 75
Looking Ahead to
Renewed Engagement
How to make a difference. By Jane Margesson
76 / Bangor Metro November 2012
S
ince May of 2012, our column has profiled several examples of programs that give back to the community and the remarkable individuals who spearhead these initiatives. In our début column, we talked about our own Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus who, at the age of 73, founded AARP because she was determined to secure health care benefits for retired teachers. Over the summer, we highlighted the AARP Driver Safety course which helps thousands of Mainers of all ages learn defensive driving techniques to stay safe on the roads. In September, we focused on the fact that many older Mainers are going hungry, and offered suggestions about some of the ways each of us can help. Last month, our column profiled voices of voters in the Bangor area who feel passionate about making their voices heard each year at the polls. We hope that our stories and reflections have spurred some of our readers to take the initiative to become involved in local activities and programs that enrich the greater Bangor area. There are so many ways to get involved and make a difference. One person who has been making a difference for years is Carol Mower of Orono. This year, Carol is being honored as the state winner of the AARP An-
drus Award for Community Service. The award honors those individuals who are sharing their experience, talent, and skills to enrich the lives of others in their community. Carol’s dedication to helping others is evident in all she does, and she continues to take on new challenges. Among other things, she has served on the board of Eastern Area on Aging and has been the activities director for the Penobscot AARP chapter under five different chapter presidents. For the town of Orono, she has served as election clerk and a member of the Voter Registration Appeals Board. You may also recognize her as the voice on AARP’s Public Service Announcements on WVOM-FM radio. “Some days I think I was born volunteering,” she says. “I started by delivering books from the public library to homebound individuals when I was in the fifth or sixth grade. One experience led to another and now I call myself a ‘professional volunteer.’” Another way that Carol has contributed her talents to the state of Maine is through her work as an advocacy volunteer for AARP. Carol has testified at the state house on many issues, including health care, financial security, and the protection of vital programs and services for Maine’s most at-risk residents. We hope Carol’s example of beneficence and advocacy will serve us all well in the next
photo: ©istockphoto/thinkstock.com
savvy seniors
legislative session, as we start to shape our agenda for 2013. No doubt, we will focus on many important issues, including long-term care, and we hope some of you will want to engage in these efforts no matter how far you live from Augusta. Some of our work is easy to do from home, and we hope you will contact us to find out more. You can send us an email at me@aarp.org or call 1-866-554-5380 to find out how to help. In the meantime, as we head into the colder months, please consider giving a food donation to the Good Shepherd Food Bank. As for staying safer on the roads? November is the best time to take the AARP Driver Safety course because if you are a veteran, the course is free. JANE MARGESSON is a communications professional with over 20 years of experience with AARP. She currently serves as director of communications for AARP.
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last word
A Llama Dilemma How one llama changed the course of one man’s race—literally. By Chris Quimby
Chris Quimby is a husband, father, Christian comedian, writer and graphic designer from Brooks. Visit him on the web at chris quimby.com or nachotree.com. 80 / Bangor Metro November 2012
photo: © istockphoto/thiinkstock.com
M
y father suggested that sometime I should use this space to pen a column honoring the small town in which I reside—Brooks, Maine. Regardless of how hard I try to summon a respectable Ken-Burns-style narrative of this quirky corner of the world, the episode that sticks out most in my mind is the time the local police intervened as I was aggressively chased by a llama. It will not surprise anyone who knows me that I would choose to use an opportunity to write about the merits of Brooks, Maine and the people who live there and focus on a weird story about myself instead. I’ve feared many things in my life, but never in my years had I ever been creative enough to realistically think I would ever be viciously pursued by homely livestock. I was participating in a community organized benefit race, and by “race,” I mean “bunch of people who normally don’t exercise trying to not throw up for three and a half miles.” After ascending a long hill and taking a 90-degree turn, I found myself just a few yards away from a local llama in the middle of the road, unleashed, unshackled, and ready to kill. Now I am possibly exaggerating, but I was vaguely familiar with this beast, having walked by it once with my wife while it was fenced in. We made some gracious gestures towards the animal back then and were met with abrasiveness and a general lack of civility. The memory of that encounter flooded back into my mind as I stood in the middle of Reynolds Road. A car driven by an elderly lady had stopped for the creature and was the only thing separating me from this long-necked instrument of death. As she slowly inched her vehicle up the street once the path was clear, I ran briskly on one side of the sedan with the llama on the other. He watched me from the other side of the vehicle, easily looking over the hood of the car and seemingly thinking, “Get ready for some of the most embarrassing injuries of your life!” At that point, when I had no idea what I might do, a police car appeared from nowhere, like Batman might in a movie. The cop drove between my and my would-be assailant. He rolled down his window, gave me an incredulous look, and asked “What the &#%*?” “They don’t go over this stuff in your manual, do they?” I asked. And they don’t. That’s the charm of a small town. We have no cookie-cutter franchises and four-lane highways. Instead, we trade predictability for personality. The state cop drove the llama up onto someone’s lawn and assured me he would keep him there until I was able to pass. I ran faster than I probably ever had in my life, resisting the temptation to look behind me to see if the officer had the beast pinned to the ground with two sets of handcuffs. I wouldn’t have won that race, but having to deal with the incident seriously hurt my chances, and I had the unique excuse at the finish line of stating that I did so badly because of being hunted by a llama. The llama did not go on to live a long, healthy life. I had nothing to do with its demise. And even though we didn’t get along, I can honestly say that I’m glad for what it gave me—a wonderful memory and nearly the opportunity to have the most unique obituary ever written.
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